London - Pregnant women who drink only two cups of coffee a day could be putting their babies at risk of leukaemia, according to a study.
Researchers found that they are up to 60 percent more likely to develop the disease during childhood.
Academics say the government should issue warnings to pregnant women to limit their coffee intake just as they are told to cut back on alcohol and stop smoking.
They think caffeine may alter the foetus’s DNA, making them more susceptible to developing tumours.
Researchers who looked at more than 20 existing studies found that babies of women who drank coffee during pregnancy were 20 percent more at risk of developing leukaemia, which is by far the most common childhood cancer.
But if they drank more than two cups a day the risk rose to 60 percent. And for women who had four or more cups a day, the risk rose to 72 percent, according to the study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
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 them not to worry if they exceed this amount as the “risks are small”.
Professor Denis Henshaw of Bristol University, who was not involved in the research but is an expert in the field, said: “I don’t think women should give up coffee altogether during pregnancy but as a precaution they should limit their intake.
“This could be to less than two cups a day or maybe even as far as only having it occasionally. The findings are very striking that the risk is 60 percent higher for just two cups a day.” - Daily Mail