Effects of restricted caffeine intake by mother on pregnancy outcome

Small amounts of caffeine might possibly not affect pregnancy outcomes like birthweight or preterm birth, although the evidence is insufficient.

A Cochrane review included 2 studies with a total of 1230 subjects. Women less than 20 weeks pregnant were randomly assigned to drink 3 cups of caffeinated instant coffee or decaffeinated instant coffee (caffeine difference 182 mg/day). There was no difference between in birthweight (3539 g in caffeinated group vs 3519 g in decaffeinated group; mean difference (MD) 20.00, 95% CI -48.68 to 88.68), preterm birth (4.2% vs 5.2% respectively; RR 0.81, 95% CI 0.48 to 1.37), or small-for-gestational age babies (4.5% vs 4.7% respectively; RR 0.97, 95% CI 0.57 to 1.64). Other sources of dietary caffeine (tea, chocolate, etc) were not measured in the study.

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by imprecise results (wide confidence intervals) and by indirectness (other sources of dietary caffeine were not measured, only some of the clinically important outcomes were reported).

Ədəbiyyat

1. Jahanfar S, Sharifah H. Effects of restricted caffeine intake by mother on fetal, neonatal and pregnancy outcome. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2009;(2):CD006965 [Review content assessed as up-to-date: 16 January 2015].