Two cups of coffee a day while pregnant 'raise baby's leukaemia risk'

Pregnant women who drink just two cups of coffee a day could be putting their babies at risk of leukaemia.

A major study has found that their babies are up to 60 per cent more likely to develop the disease during childhood, The Daily Mail reported.

Academics say caffeine may change the DNA in the foetus’s cells making them more susceptible to the development of tumours.

Researchers who looked at more than 20 existing studies found that babies of women who drank coffee during pregnancy were 20 per cent more at risk of developing leukaemia. But if they drank more than two cups a day the risk rose to 60 per cent.

And for women who had four or more cups a day it rose to 72 per cent, according to the study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Around 500 children are diagnosed with leukaemia in the UK every year and it is by far the most common childhood cancer.

Fortunately, if detected early enough it can be treated with chemotherapy and survival rates are around 80 per cent.

But despite decades of research, scientists have been unable to pinpoint its cause and previous links to power lines and nuclear power plants have been dismissed.

The study concludes: ‘The findings suggest that maternal coffee consumption during pregnancy may increase the risk of childhood leukaemia.

Because of limited studies, further prospective studies are urgently needed to explore the adverse effect of coffee consumption on childhood leukaemia.’

The NHS advises pregnant women to limit themselves to 200mg of caffeine a day, equivalent to one and a half cups of filter coffee or two of instant.

But the advice is relaxed and it tells women not to worry if they exceed this amount as the ‘risks are small.’

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