ABC.net.au
A new Dutch study has found pregnant women who drink lots of coffee every day may have smaller babies.
Researchers in Rotterdam studied women who consumed the caffeine equivalent of six cups of coffee per day during their pregnancy.
They say, on average, their babies were slightly shorter than newborns whose mothers had consumed less caffeine during pregnancy.
The findings have been reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and add to the conflicting body of research on whether caffeine affects foetal growth.
"Caffeine intake seems to affect length growth of the foetus from the first trimester onwards," researcher Rachel Bakker said.
Heavy caffeine consumers also had an increased risk of having a baby who was small for gestational age - smaller than the norm for the baby's sex and the week of pregnancy during which he or she was born.
That finding, however, was based on a small number of babies, and the significance is uncertain.
Of 104 infants born to women with the highest caffeine intakes, seven were small for gestational age.
In this study, Ms Bakker and colleagues at the Erasmus Medical Centre used ultrasound scans to monitor foetal growth over the course of pregnancy in 7,346 women.
At each trimester, the women reported on their usual intake of coffee and tea.
Most women consumed less than the equivalent of four cups of coffee per day at any point in pregnancy, but between 2 and 3 per cent downed six or more cups' worth of caffeine.
