The choices of teas we get in an average grocery store these days is mind boggling along with the number of benefits promised by them. Most of these are herbal and have nothing but goodness for your body. However, some of these herbal teas can have adverse effect on you if consumed during pregnancy. And this has led to the numerous questions surrounding the fitment of drinking Chamomile tea during pregnancy.
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You would love to relish a soothing cup of the herbal tea any day, however, a few doctors might want you to limit the consumption of Chamomile tea while you are carrying. There are of course a number of health benefits, but there are a couple of risks associated with its consumption. Let’s discuss more about it.
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Chamomile Tea During Pregnancy
Herbal teas are the drinks extracted from the roots, berries, seeds or parts of a plant other than leaves, whereas the non-herbal ones use the dried leaves mostly. Non-herbal teas are mostly rich in caffeine while herbals ones are not. Whether or not a particular tea is harmful for a pregnant woman is determined by the presence or absence of caffeine in it, and in case caffeine is present, the quantity plays a great role in deciding for or against its consumption.
Source: infobaby.org
Usually your doctor would insist that you reduce the intake of caffeine after you conceive. You might also find a lot of people recommending to bring the dose of caffeine down while you are nursing. The reason being a developing baby inside the mother, or a newborn cannot process caffeine like an adult. Apart from tea, your body gets caffeine from chocolate, coffee, and flavored soda. Therefore, if you are consuming these food products regularly while pregnant, then it is only fair to you and the life growing inside you that you cut down the doses.
The kind of teas with heavy caffeine content that should be kept away from an expecting woman are black tea, green tea, and oolong. Herbal teas, on the other hand are naturally caffeine free, however, that doesn’t make them totally suitable for expectants – Chamomile falls into this category. As per the US Food and Drug Administration, not all herbal teas could be considered safe for women while carrying. It is important that we understand that all herbal teas do not share the same nature.
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Though doctors agree that chamomile tea’s pregnancy benefits are numerous as the therapeutic drink helps people in getting sleep, calms anxiety, and treats cold; due to lack of proper and enough experiments there has not been any solid and reliable conclusions on the suitability of drinking Chamomile tea during pregnancy. “Is chamomile tea safe during pregnancy” is still a doubt neither confirmed nor denied.
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Nevertheless, it is a known factor that the daisy-like herb has rich quantities of anti-inflammatory agents. This may prove fatal for carrying mothers, more so if medical history and other health factors don’t permit its consumption. But before arriving at a conclusion, like all other components of your diet, we suggest you discuss the consumption of Chamomile tea with your doctor too. For some patients, physicians may recommend small quantities of the tea, for others not a sip. Also, if at all you have to sip on it, we would suggest you pick commercially prepared Chamomile tea as the one processed commercially are procured from safe sources.
Source: healthtap.com
There are also speculations on Chamomile tea’s side effects during pregnancy. Many say and believe that chamomile tea can induce labor. Again, it is a notion that has never been scientifically proven. There are a few herbal teas, blue cohosh and black cohosh included, that are known to contribute to contraction, but no doctor has identified chamomile as one.
So all we know that despite many assumptions against the drinking of Chamomile tea during pregnancy there has not been any consistent derivation on it. However, the dangers many herbal teas introduce to the pregnant body cannot be ruled out completely either. Despite its numerous health benefits considering the tales flying about in air and the feared chamomile tea negative effects on pregnancy, and your personal medical history, we would always encourage you to discuss with your physician if you should continue sipping on this fruity tea or bail on it for these few months.
