Normally when pregnant, you are carefully avoiding caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and medication.
What about herbal tea? Is herbal tea safe during pregnancy? You should think about the fact that the herbal teas could also turn out to be harmful if you have too much of them.
Some of their ingredients are safe, but others aren’t.
What kind of tea to have during pregnancy?
The truth is that only a few of the herbs have been studied regarding pregnant women.
According to the FDA the herbs that are considered to be safe to use in foods are also safe to be used for teas. The safe herbs include ginger, peppermint, lime blossom, roasted barley, thyme and rose hips.
Nonetheless you should drink teas only occasionally and moderately. If you have too much tea, you or the baby could turn out to have health problems.
Unsafe teas
If you are planning to have herbal tea during pregnancy you should know that there are a lot of different herbs that in large amounts can stimulate the uterus, leading to a miscarriage.
Such herbs include anise, chamomile, catnip, comfrey, mistletoe, ephedra, horehound, hibiscus, lemongrass, Labrador, mugwort, licorice root, raspberry leaf, pennyroyal, sage, rosemary, stinging nettle leaf, sassafras, yarrow and vetiver.
Some of the midwives use raspberry leaf teas to help with delivery, but its effects weren’t scientifically proved. Such a tea should be used only for short periods of time and only under the supervision of a professional. The rest of the herbs that were mentioned should be avoided both during pregnancy and during breastfeeding.
Nonetheless it is safe to have some food with sage and rosemary leaf because the amounts are too small to have a negative effect. Still make sure that you don’t have such herbal tea while being pregnant, just to be sure.