Baby Care

Drinking coffee during pregnancy increases the risk of birth with faint lip.

A joint study by American and Norwegian scientists showed that the consumption of coffee during pregnancy increases the risk of the a child birth with cleft upper lip or palate (harelip or cleft palate).

Caffeine can cross the placenta and affect fetal heart rate and respiration, so limit your consumption. Up to 300mg of caffeine a day (an 8-ounce cup of coffee has about 150mg, a 12-ounce can of soda has 35 to 50mg, and an 8-ounce cup of black tea has abut 40mg) is okay.

Children of women, who drink three cups of coffee a day during the first trimester of pregnancy, are born with congenital pathology of the upper lip or palate 1.39 times more than the women do not use coffee. The probability of the birth of a child with such defects for women who drank more than three cups of coffee during the first three months of pregnancy, increased 1.59 times.

According to the doctors, the increase of the birth of a child with a faint lip or «cleft palate» is not due to caffeine, as well as among women who use tea during pregnancy, it was below normal. Researchers believe that this happens because the majority of women who drink coffee are smokers.

Experts say caffeine may damage the DNA of babies in the womb, making them more susceptible to leukemia, the most common cancer in children.

The probability child birth with the pathology of the upper lip or palate is small: for 600-800 healthy children, one child is born with such defects. Doctors also say that women planning to have children and pregnant women should focus on lifestyle: mostly stop smoking and to comply with diet.