Couples' pre-pregnancy caffeine consumption linked to miscarriage risk

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/nksn-cpc032416.php

Public Release: 24-Mar-2016
Couples' pre-pregnancy caffeine consumption linked to miscarriage risk
NIH study finds daily multivitamin before and after conception greatly reduces miscarriage risk
NIH/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

A woman is more likely to miscarry if she and her partner drink more than two caffeinated beverages a day during the weeks leading up to conception, according to a new study from researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Ohio State University, Columbus. Similarly, women who drank more than two daily caffeinated beverages during the first seven weeks of pregnancy were also more likely to miscarry.

However, women who took a daily multivitamin before conception and through early pregnancy were less likely to miscarry than women who did not. The study was published online in Fertility and Sterility.

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Because their study found caffeine consumption before pregnancy was associated with a higher risk of miscarriage, it's more likely that caffeinated beverage consumption during this time directly contributes to pregnancy loss.

"Our findings also indicate that the male partner matters, too," Dr. Buck Louis said. "Male preconception consumption of caffeinated beverages was just as strongly associated with pregnancy loss as females'."

Finally, the researchers saw a reduction in miscarriage risk for women who took a daily multivitamin. During the preconception period, researchers found a hazard ratio of 0.45-- a 55-percent reduction in risk for pregnancy loss. Women who continued to take the vitamins through early pregnancy had a hazard ratio of 0.21, or a risk reduction of 79 percent. The authors cited other studies that found that vitamin B6 and folic acid--included in preconception and pregnancy vitamin formulations--can reduce miscarriage risk. Folic acid supplements are recommended for women of childbearing age, as their use in the weeks leading up to and following conception reduces the risk for having a child with a neural tube defect.