If you’re an expectant or breastfeeding mother who loves their coffee, you may be wondering if you need to say goodbye to your caffeine fix in the morning. Depending on your current intake and the state of your overall health, it may be beneficial to find coffee alternatives and cut down on your caffeine intake during pregnancy.
Certainly, it's essential for expectant mothers to understand what they're consuming on a daily basis and how their consumption habits might influence the development and growth of their child.
To make sure that your newborn is happy and healthy when you welcome them into the world, it will help to know a little bit more about what coffee does to your body.
Caffeine is a common psychoactive substance that’s found in a lot of our beloved foods and beverages including tea, chocolate, energy drinks and, of course, coffee.
So let’s have a look at what you need to know about caffeine. We’ll explore the advantages of reducing your caffeine intake during pregnancy, as well as healthy coffee substitutes to drink during pregnancy.
Please note, the information provided in this blog post should not be taken as medical advice. If you have any concerns or questions about pregnancy, please see a licensed health professional.
Reasons to Cut Down on Caffeine During Pregnancy
- Impact on Foetal Development
According to multiple studies, caffeine is generally safe to consume during pregnancy in small amounts. According to The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist (ACOG), the recommended amount of caffeine is less than 200mg per day.
However, there is still research that needs to be done regarding the effects of caffeine on foetal development. For example, one study found that maternal caffeine consumption increased the foetus’ breathing rate and awake time. Previous studies also found that consumption of less than 200mg of caffeine per day was associated with smaller neonatal anthropometric measurements.
- Impact on the Mother
Just like anyone else who consumes coffee on a regular basis, mothers can experience a wide array of negative side effects from caffeine. This includes increased feelings of anxiety, palpitations, insomnia, dizziness and jitters. In addition, pregnant women that consume more caffeine than they did before they were pregnant may be at a higher risk of developing gestational diabetes.
This might be problematic when you consider the fact that pregnancy already causes a wide range of significant changes in the mind and the body. For instance, the Better Health Channel states that perinatal depression and anxiety might result in panic attacks, feeling sad for no particular reason, brain fog, persistent worry about health and so on.
Women experiencing these symptoms for more than two weeks should see a health professional.
- Effects on Breastfeeding
If you are breastfeeding, it’s important to know how caffeine might affect your newborn.
Mothers who are consuming caffeinated beverages can expect small amounts of caffeine in their breast milk.
Newborns are more sensitive to caffeine and are less able to metabolise it. As a result, a child ingesting caffeine through breast milk might:
- Irritability
- Sleeping problems
- Increased activity
- General restlessness
Drinking coffee may also affect the nutritional quality of the breast milk, lessening its iron content.
How to Cut Down on Caffeine
Though caffeine may not be as harmful as some might think, there will likely be mothers out there who might want to reduce their intake significantly.
This is where healthy coffee alternatives come in.
At Not Coffee, we provide a wide variety of healthy coffee substitutes suitable for pregnancy that contain no caffeine or other similar stimulants. Of course, as coffee lovers ourselves, we wanted to make sure that our products looked and tasted like coffee as well.
Through our coffee replacements, it’ll be easier to reduce your caffeine intake without having to sacrifice the experience of having your morning cup. Not Coffee products also doesn’t cause adverse effects on your sleep, blood pressure, thyroid function or overall mood.
All our ingredients are also naturally vegan-friendly and do not contain gluten, dairy, nuts, and added sugars.
To ensure that you’re getting the best value for your hard-earned money, we also make sure to pack our Not Coffee products with prebiotics, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Through ingredients like chicory root, carob and chickpea, our products can improve your gut health as well as your overall well-being.
With our wide range of Not Coffee products, there’s sure to be something for everyone. Our range includes instant, ground and chai varieties with flavours like caramel, turmeric, hazelnut, and vanilla.
For more information on the specific ingredients in our products, please refer to the individual product pages on our website.
