Caffeine consumption during pregnancy and the underweight newborn

Resumo

There is a great controversy about the ingestion of caffeine during pregnancy, with some conclusive results suggesting that higher levels of caffeine consumption might have negative effects on pregnant women and babies.

A low birth weight has been associated with caffeine consumption during pregnancy. However, not all studies share the same opinion. The mechanism by which caffeine appears to influence fetal growth is not yet defined. Verena (2013) refers in his research that for every 100mg of daily caffeine consumption, the weight of the baby would decrease between 21 to 28 grams and the gestation period was extended in five hours.

Considering this, the goal of our study is to investigate the extent to which caffeine consumption in pregnant women can lead to the occurrence of low birth weight.

To do this we have conducted a study of descriptive, transversal and quantitative type, consisting of 87 recent mothers, with an average age of 31.2 years, with a weight gain of 10,1Kg during pregnancy, gestational age of 38.8 weeks and birth weight of 3,003Kg, of which 75.86% ingested coffee during pregnancy, an average of 1.3 cups per day.

After analysing the data, this study has found that there is no statistically significant difference between coffee consumption during pregnancy and the weight of the newborn.

However the small size of the sample is considered the major limitation of the study.

Based on the results of other conducted studies, the recommendations related to the maximum amount of caffeine consumption per day should be reviewed.