Maternal caffeine intake was associated with a higher risk of pregnancy loss

What is it about?

We summarized evidence from 14 prospectively conducted studies involving a total of 130 456 participants and 3429 cases of pregnancy loss. We found that high maternal caffeine intake (>= 3.5 cups of coffee/day) was associated with higher risk of pregnancy loss. However, these results might have been affected by publication bias (i.e., studies with null results tend not to be published and thus not summarized in meta-analysis) and residual confounding by pregnancy symptoms (i.e., higher caffeine intake is a result rather than cause of less viable pregnancy). Nonetheless, given the clear association between maternal caffeine intake and low birth weight in our previous study, avoiding high caffeine intake during pregnancy appears prudent.

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Why is it important?

Although caffeine may be slightly beneficial in general population, as shown in previous research, its effect during pregnancy remains unclear. The metabolism of caffeine slows down as pregnancy progresses, raising concerns of caffeine accumulation in fetal tissues and its potential detrimental effects. We only considered prospectively conducted observational studies in this systematic review and meta-analysis, thus ensuring that the synthesized evidence is of higher quality and relatively free from recall bias.

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