Caffeine Intake Level Linked to Miscarriage Level, Study Finds

According to new study a couple's chance of miscarriage may increase when the woman or man intakes more than two caffeinated drinks daily in the weeks leading up to having a baby.

"There's something about drinking caffeinated beverages that is associated with pregnancy loss," said Germaine Buck Louis of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, who did the study.

On the other hand, women who consumed multivitamins priro to getting pregnant and early in pregnancy were 50 percent less likely to miscarry according to the study as well.

"Our findings provide useful information for couples who are planning a pregnancy and who would like to minimize their risk for early pregnancy loss," Louis said.

The study had 501 couple participants from Michigan and Texas who stopped using contraception and were trying to conceive. Researchers have told the participating couples to keep daily journals of their lifestyle, such as smoking and alcohol intake level and consumption of caffeinated beverages. The study told that couples who got pregnant within a year stayed in the study till they gave birth to the baby or have experienced a miscarriage.

Out of the 344 pregnancies, 28 percent of them finsiehd in miscarriage: 98 in total.

There was a 73 percent rise in the chance of miscarriage when the male partner drank at least two caffeinated drinks daily before conception of the baby.

"Male preconception consumption of caffeinated beverages was just as strongly associated with pregnancy loss as females," Louis added.

However, The study does not prove that caffeine causes miscarriage, only that there appears to be a link, said lead researcher Katherine Sapra, a postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. "This is an observational study, so we can't prove cause and effect, but we are confident of these findings," she said.

The study have been published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.