News and Views

Maternal nutrition is important to a developing embryo and to the health of the child later in life. Supplementing the diet with specific vitamins is known to increase health of the fetus. However not everything an adult might consume is beneficial to a developing baby. Caffeine is linked to low birth weight babies and that caffeine from coffee is linked to increasing length of pregnancy. Along with nutrients and oxygen, caffeine freely passes the placental barrier, but the developing embryo does not express the enzymes required to inactivate it efficiently.