Alcohol is the most important drink to avoid during pregnancy, but it’s not the only one. Several common beverages carry real risks to a developing baby, from unpasteurized juices to energy drinks to kombucha. Here’s what to skip and why it matters.
Alcohol: No Safe Amount Exists
There is no known safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy, no safe type, and no safe trimester. The CDC is unequivocal on this point: wine, beer, and liquor all carry the same risks. Alcohol crosses the placenta freely, and a developing baby’s liver cannot process it the way yours can.
Drinking during pregnancy raises the risk of miscarriage, preterm birth, stillbirth, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). It can also cause fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, a group of lifelong conditions that include intellectual disabilities, behavioral problems, and physical differences. Alcohol in the first three months can lead to abnormal facial features, while exposure at any point can affect brain development and birth weight. Because the brain develops throughout all nine months, there is no window where alcohol becomes less harmful.
This includes early pregnancy before you know you’re pregnant. If you’re trying to conceive, avoiding alcohol entirely eliminates the risk during those first critical weeks.
Energy Drinks
Energy drinks are a problem during pregnancy for multiple reasons. The most obvious is caffeine. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends a daily limit of 200 mg of caffeine during pregnancy, roughly one 12-ounce cup of coffee. A single energy drink can contain 150 to 300 mg or more, making it easy to blow past that threshold with one can. Caffeine crosses the placenta readily and alters stress hormone levels in the mother. Research has found a significant negative correlation between excess caffeine consumption during pregnancy and IQ in exposed children.
Beyond caffeine, energy drinks contain a mix of other stimulants and additives, including guarana (which is itself a caffeine source), ginseng, and taurine. Safety data for these compounds during pregnancy is extremely limited. When you don’t know whether an ingredient is safe for a developing fetus, the practical answer is to avoid it.
Unpasteurized Juice, Cider, and Raw Milk
Unpasteurized beverages can harbor dangerous bacteria, and pregnancy makes you significantly more vulnerable to the consequences. Listeria is the main concern. This bacterium thrives in refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods and drinks, including raw milk, fresh-squeezed juice, and unpasteurized apple cider sold at farmers’ markets or roadside stands.
Listeriosis, the infection caused by listeria, can feel like a mild flu in the mother or cause no symptoms at all. But for the baby, it can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, or meningitis in a newborn. Late-term infection has been linked to seizures, blindness, intellectual disability, and damage to the brain, heart, or kidneys. The disconnect between mild maternal symptoms and devastating fetal outcomes is what makes listeria so dangerous: you might not realize anything is wrong until serious harm has occurred.
Raw milk adds several more pathogens to the list. It can carry Campylobacter, Salmonella, E. coli, and Brucella in addition to Listeria. In severe cases, these infections can lead to kidney failure or paralysis. Pregnant women are specifically listed by the CDC as a high-risk group for serious illness from raw milk. If you see “unpasteurized” on a juice, cider, or milk label, or if there’s no label at all, skip it.
Kombucha
Kombucha presents a combination of the risks already described. It’s fermented, which means it contains alcohol as a natural byproduct. In the U.S., beverages with 0.5% alcohol by volume or higher must carry a pregnancy warning label, but even varieties below that threshold still contain some alcohol. And the alcohol content isn’t always stable. Commercial kombucha has been pulled from store shelves after continued fermentation inside the bottle pushed alcohol levels above the labeled amount.
Homebrewed kombucha is an even bigger unknown. Depending on the yeast, fermentation time, and temperature, homemade batches can reach 3% alcohol or higher, comparable to a light beer. There’s no easy way to test this at home.
On top of the alcohol issue, most kombucha is sold raw and unpasteurized. That means it carries the same risk of bacterial contamination as unpasteurized juice or milk, including listeria and salmonella. Homemade fermented foods carry greater risk still, since home kitchens can’t replicate the sterilization methods used in commercial production.
Certain Herbal Teas
Herbal teas feel like a safe, natural choice, but “natural” doesn’t mean “safe in pregnancy.” Several commonly consumed herbal teas have documented risks for pregnant women.
- Chamomile has been linked to a higher incidence of preterm labor and miscarriage with regular use. In one case, a woman drinking chamomile tea regularly at 20 weeks developed a constriction in a critical blood vessel in the fetus, similar to the effect caused by anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen. The condition improved after she stopped drinking the tea. Chamomile is generally considered unsafe during pregnancy.
- Fennel tea contains compounds with estrogen-like effects that can influence hormone levels. Fennel oil has been shown to reduce uterine contractions in animal studies and demonstrated toxic effects on fetal cells in lab settings.
- Peppermint tea in large quantities is contraindicated in early pregnancy because it can stimulate menstrual flow.
- Ginger tea is often recommended for morning sickness, but the picture is more complicated than it appears. Ginger use throughout pregnancy has been associated with prematurity and decreased head circumference at birth. It may also increase the risk of vaginal bleeding by interfering with blood clotting.
The challenge with herbal teas is that they aren’t regulated the way medications are, so potency varies widely between brands. An occasional cup of ginger tea for nausea is generally considered low risk, but daily consumption of any herbal tea during pregnancy is worth discussing with your provider.
Sugary Drinks and Soda
Sugary beverages won’t poison a developing baby the way alcohol can, but heavy consumption during pregnancy is linked to real health concerns. The large-scale Nurses’ Health Study II found that drinking five or more servings per week of sugar-sweetened cola before or during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes raises the likelihood of a large baby, difficult delivery, and future type 2 diabetes for both mother and child.
Sugary drinks also contribute to excessive weight gain during pregnancy without providing any nutritional value. Water, milk, and small amounts of 100% pasteurized fruit juice are better choices for staying hydrated.
Drinks With Artificial Sweeteners
Most artificial sweeteners approved for sale in the U.S. and Canada appear to be low risk during pregnancy when consumed within normal limits. Aspartame, sucralose, and stevia have not been linked to preterm delivery or birth defects in available research. One important exception: if you have phenylketonuria (PKU), you must avoid aspartame because your body can’t process one of its breakdown products.
Saccharin deserves more caution. It crosses the placenta, and studies in primates found that the fetus eliminates it much more slowly than the mother does. Repeated consumption could lead to accumulation in fetal tissue. While animal studies using extremely high doses haven’t shown birth defects, the slow fetal clearance is reason enough to choose a different sweetener during pregnancy.
Tap Water Concerns
For most people on public water systems, tap water is safe during pregnancy. But private wells are a different story. Well water is not subject to the same federal testing requirements as municipal water, and nitrate contamination is a particular concern. The legal limit for public water systems is 10 mg/L of nitrate-nitrogen, but research has found risks at levels well below that. Mothers exposed to nitrate levels of 5 mg/L or higher in groundwater faced double the risk of anencephaly, a severe neural tube defect, compared to those with lower exposure.
If you rely on well water, getting it tested for nitrates and lead during pregnancy is a worthwhile precaution. Lead in older pipes or fixtures is another concern, as even low-level lead exposure can affect fetal brain development. Running the tap for 30 seconds before filling your glass helps flush standing water that may have absorbed more lead from pipes. If testing reveals elevated levels of either contaminant, switching to bottled or filtered water for the duration of your pregnancy is the simplest fix.