New research shows that drinking caffeine may increase your risk of miscarriage.

A new study has linked the consumption of caffeinated beverages with pregnancy loss. 

According to the research team from the National Health Institute of Health and Ohio State University, a woman is more likely to suffer from a miscarriage of pregnancy if both she and her partner consume caffeinated beverages daily in the weeks prior to conception.

Using a sample group of 344 couples, researchers looked at several lifestyle factors in couples wanting to conceive. These factors included things like antenatal care, early and on going use of a pregnancy specific multivitamin and cigarette and caffeine consumption in both partners from weeks prior to conception all the way until about seven months into the pregnancy.

Sadly of the 344 couples participating in the study 98 of them resulted in the woman experiencing a miscarriage. This equates to 28 per cent.

Interestingly the study found that caffeinated drink consumption was an increased risk factor not only for women but also for men (hazard ration risk of 1.74 increase in women and 1.73 increased risk for men).

Germaine Buck Louis, the director of the Division of Intramural Population Health Research at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and research author says “Male preconception consumption of caffeinated beverages was just as strongly associated with pregnancy loss as females”.

The study’s findings also indicated that age was a contributing factor which is consistent with previous research into the area. This particular study indicates that women over the age of 35 were twice as likely to suffer a miscarriage than younger women.

This week marks the start of Never Forgotten: Mamamia's Pregnancy Loss Awareness Week.

Pregnancy multivitamin use was found to be of considerable benefit not only to pregnant mothers but also for women wanting to conceive. In women who took a daily pregnancy specific multivitamin in the weeks prior to conception, the risk of miscarriage was reduced by over 55 per cent.

Continuing to take the multivitamin into the pregnancy further decreased the risk of miscarriage by 79 per cent. Again this supports previously published research which indicates that folic acid and vitamin B6 (found in multivitamins designed for pregnant women) are beneficial for expectant mothers in reducing the risk of miscarriage.

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