Pregnant Women Can Still Drink Coffee, Study Says

Coffee-loving mothers rejoice! A new study found that pregnant woman can drink caffeine, as long as it’s in moderation.

The study was conducted by The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology on November 19.

Researchers analyzed 2,197 expecting mothers’ blood to measure the amount of caffeine in their bodies to see how this could affect their children’s IQs in the future. They looked at the association between a chemical called paraxanthine, which is a molecule derived from caffeine, at two points in the mothers’ pregnancies. After the children were born, they recorded their IQ levels at ages 4 and 7. There were no signs of developmental and behavioral issues in the children at those stages.

“We did not find evidence of an adverse association of maternal pregnancy caffeine consumption with child cognition or behavior at 4 or 7 years of age,” Mark A. Klebanoff, MD, principal investigator for the study, said in the article.