By David Liu, PHD

Friday Nov 23, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- An observational study in American Journal of Epidemiology suggests that women drinking coffee while pregnant may have a high risk of losing their baby or coffee drinking may increase risk of fetal death including stillbirth and spontaneous abortion.

B.H. Bech of University of Aarhua in Aarhua, Denmark and colleagues analysed data from 88,482 pregnant women interviewed from March 1996 through Nov 2002 for their consumption of coffee and potential confounding risk factors in pregnancy and found fetal death rate was higher among women drinking coffee during late pregnancy.

The study within the Danish National Birth Cohort was conducted to determine whether drinking coffee during pregnancy would increase risk of late fetal death including spontaneous abortion and stillbirth.

In the study population, 1,102 fetal deaths were identified from the National Hospital Discharge Register and medical record.

As a result, high levels of coffee consumption was found associated with an elevated risk of fetal death.  The risk could be increased by up to 59 percent in those women who drank 8 or more cups of coffee per day.

The researchers were able to determine by a reverse causation analysis that fetal death prior to 20 completed weeks' gestation was largely due to other unrecognized fetal demise, but coffee drinking was indeed associated with fetal death after 20 completed weeks' gestation.

The researchers concluded "Consumption of coffee during pregnancy was associated with a higher risk of fetal death, especially losses occurring after 20 completed weeks of gestation."

This is not the first study that found an association between caffeine intake and elevated risk of fetal death including spontaneous abortion.

Sven Cnattingius MD PHD and colleagues published an study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggesting that caffeine ingestion during 6 to 12 completed weeks of gestation increased risk of spontaneous abortion when the fetus had a normal or unknown karyotype.