DRINKING more than eight cups of coffee a day during pregnancy can more than double the risk of a stillbirth, according to Danish researchers.

Those who drink between four and seven cups a day increase the risk by 40 per cent, the team reports in the British Medical Journal. Drinking fewer than four cups a day had no effect.

Exposure to caffeine during pregnancy has been linked to an increased risk of miscarriage and low birth weight. The researchers studied 18,478 pregnant women at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark between 1989 and 1996.

The women completed questionnaires about their medical history, smoking habits, and alcohol and coffee consumption.

The research team, led by Kirsten Wisborg of Aarhus University Hospital, found that of those studied the overall likelihood of having a stillborn baby was 4.4 per 1,000 births.

A stillbirth is defined as the delivery of a dead foetus which is at least 28 weeks old. For the purposes of the study, one cup of coffee amounted to about 100mg of caffeine.

But the absolute risks of stillbirth remain small, even in those who drank the most coffee. There were just 11 stillbirths out of 950 births to women in this group.

Roger Cook of the British Coffee Association, said that pregnant women should not be alarmed.

“The results of this study do not alter the advice given to pregnant women on caffeine consumption during pregnancy by the Food Standards Agency who state that 300mg caffeine — equivalent to 3 mugs or 4 cups of coffee per day — is perfectly safe and will have no adverse effect on the mother or the foetus,” he said.

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