“Why soft drinks are bad during pregnancy?”

Never artificial sweeteners

Hello, 

I'm not sure who or why someone told you that soft drinks are dangerous in pregnancy, but they are not. Obviously, if you are overweight, you don't want to drink only Sprite or Coke all day long. Also, we tell people to limit caffeine to one cup of coffee daily, which is equal to about 3 Diet Cokes a day. However, otherwise, soda is not dangerous. 
I hope that this helps.    

Joseph A. Adashek, MD FACOG

It's not that soft drinks are terrible in pregnancy, they’re just not great sources of hydration and nutrition in general. They have added sweeteners and calories and the carbonation can increase the gas and bloating a lot of pregnant women get anyway. Pregnancy makes women prone to developing diabetes (gestational diabetes), so limiting excess sugar such as that in soft drinks and juice can help your blood sugar levels be more well controlled. This in turn helps limit cravings and can help decrease your risk of diabetes, which can cause complications for you and the baby.

Soft drinks in general contain high fructose syrup and caffeine with little potential for hydration. The latter is a diuretic (making you pee more) and may induce contractions. Our group also has made extensive research on the impact of fructose during pregnancy and the bad effects (autism and metabolic disturbances: hypertension, obesity (metabolic syndrome) were observed in children throughout their youth and even into adulthood.