Drinking Yerba Mate during Pregnancy

I thought this recent enquiry was worth sharing with the rest of the Internet.
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Name: Rebecca
Enquiry/Comments: Drinking Yerba Mate during Pregnancy!

I am enquiring about drinking Mate during pregnancy. I am 7 months pregnant and used to drink mate everyday. I am wondering if pregnant women in south america drink yerba mate? Iced mate is my summer saviour and I want to start drinking it again!!
I drink small amounts of green tea so I am not caffeine free. Thank you!
Rebecca.

Dear Rebecca

Thank you for your email.

In regards to your question about drinking yerba mate while pregnant, I guess the safest advice will be to consult with your doctor or midwife.
However, pregnant woman in South America drink mate is very common. I have drank mate throughout both of my pregnancies. Yerba mate contains 1-3% of the caffeine present in coffee. Usually doctors advise not to drink more than 6 cups of coffee a day (which I personaly think is way too much!) this amount of caffeine will probably be the equivalent of you drinking 5-10 litres of mate a day! So, I do not think it is a problem, but again it may depend on your tolerance to caffeine and how you feel overall. I've noted that if I drink mate with an empty stomach in the morning it gives me heart burn, so I usually eat something before hand. Terere (cold mate) will be very nice now in summer, again if you have heart burn perhaps it will be better to prepare it with cold water or sugary water rather then lemon, grapefruit or orange juice.
I hope your pregnancy goes really well
With best wishes


For the record, we strongly urge that any women considering drinking mate to raise alertness levels to discuss what is best for them with a medical practitioner. The views of this blog and our sponsors are not indicative of scientific literature nor should this blog be taken as medical nor health advice. If during pregnancy you are struggling to stay awake there may be better solutions than drinking yerba mate.