What do you think about the mother in this case? A 26-year-old North Dakota mom was arrested for breastfeeding her baby while she was drunk.

Police were called to her home to investigate a domestic disturbance, and found Stacey Anvarinia breastfeeding her 6-week-old baby. The officers believed that she was drunk and arrested her. Last week she pleaded guilty to child neglect charges, and is due to be sentenced next month.

North Dakota authorities said that they believed that the police were correct to make the arrest, even if the mother hadn’t been breastfeeding, out of concern that the child was being taken care of by someone who was intoxicated.

Getting falling-down drunk then breastfeeding is one thing. But having a glass of wine in the evening – is that something that a mom could be arrested for? I hope not. Unwinding at the end of the day when baby is in bed with a little TV and a glass of wine is sanity-restoring to many moms.

The La Leche League says that light drinking is compatible with breastfeeding, and that one drink a day or less isn’t harmful to your baby.

So can you drink alcohol if you are breastfeeding? And should you be worried about being arrested? Alcohol certainly gets into breastmilk in small quantities.

So the most sensible thing for nursing mom to do is just a little planning. It takes a couple of hours for your body to process one drink – like a glass of wine or a bottle of beer. So if you have a glass of red wine in the evening just after you put baby to bed, knowing that the next time you’ll need to nurse won’t be for a couple of hours at least, then you and your baby should be fine.

And if you have more than one drink? What if you are going to a wedding, or a night out? Some mothers avoid breastfeeding their babies for several hours after drinking, either pumping breastmilk beforehand to feed the baby, or using formula. Then, after drinking alcohol, pumping milk and dumping it eases any engorgement and gets rid of any milk which may have alcohol in it.

What do you think? Are you a nursing mother who drinks alcohol? How much is too much? Or should nursing moms never drink alcohol?

It’s a popular belief that alcohol consumption actually helps in milk production. I’ve never tried this myself during my breastfeeding – er- rather breast milk pumping months but some mothers swear to this technique. The question is – is there scientific evidence to support this belief? And perhaps, an even more important question is how alcohol affects the mother and baby.

Surprisingly, the answers to these questions are not simple “yes” or “no”. Lactation is a highly complex process, according to Philadelphia researchers in a paper published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

The authors have observed that drinking alcohol can affect the hormonal status of a breastfeeding woman and disrupt milk production – at least in the short term.

The researchers studied 13 lactating women and measured the effect of alcohol on milk quantity and prolactin responses. Prolactin is the hormone that is produced by the pituitary gland to stimulate milk production.

Results of the study showed that milk production is significantly lower in mothers drinking alcohol. However, there seems to be no effect on prolactin response. The effect of alcohol on milk yield seems to depend on the time elapsed between alcohol consumption and breast pumping.

In some culture, alcohol consumption is part of postnatal rituals. In China, for example, women are fed chicken soup with rice wine as part of the “postpartum ‘doing-the-month’ ritual.” During this period, Chinese researchers also observed disruption in the mothers’ milk production. However, they claim that the hazard posed by alcohol to breaastfed babies is very minimal. To get rid of all potential health risks, they recommend a 3-hour time lapse between alcohol consumption and breastfeeding.

It is evident that more studies are needed before the interactions between alcohol consumption and lactation can be truly understood.

What about you? What’s your policy about drinking and breastfeeding?

The expression that pregnant women are ?eating for two? is a myth. Pregnant women need about 300 calories over their usual, per day, to provide for the nutrition of the baby, as well. This is higher, of course for twins. But water intake is a different story? drinking for two won?t hurt!

I had a lengthy conversation about nutrition with my midwife the other day. I was surprised when she said I should be drinking twelve 8-ounce glasses of water a day! If 8 glasses (that?s a gallon of water!) is the recommended amount for non-pregnant women, I guess I?m not exactly drinking for two?more like one and a half. But it certainly feels like it. (And some days it feels like I?m peeing for three!)

There?s only so much plain water a woman can drink in one day, so I?ve come up with some ideas to make it tolerable.

• Decaf beverages count, too!

Decaffeinated tea (iced or hot) sweetened with a bit of all-natural honey is a great way to meet some of your water quota.

• Vitamin Water

Glaceau?s VitaminWater is one of the few sweetened beverages on the market that uses cane sugar in lieu of high-fructose corn syrup. Infused with vitamins, it?s a healthier choice than, say, Diet Coke, but each serving contains 50 calories, so drink sparingly.

• Homemade Flavored Water

Companies who make water filters offer options to put flavorings in your filtered tap water. But I make my own by adding a small handful of frozen strawberries, blueberries or raspberries to filtered tap water. Not only does it get your drink nice and cold, but as the fruit melts, your water has a very strong fruit flavor. And you get to eat the fruit when you?re done, so it?s kind of like the cherry at the bottom of a Cosmopolitan. Sort of.

• Add lemon, lime or orange to your water. A quick squeeze of fresh lemon, lime or orange juice adds flavor to your water without adding any calories.
• 50/50 Split When you want something a bit ?stronger? than just flavor-infused tap water, create a beverage that is half cranberry, grape, apple or orange juice and half water. Again, these drinks are high in calories and sugar, but you?re also benefiting from the vitamins. Cranberry juice is especially good as cranberries help protect urinary tract infections and also tone the uterus to prepare for childbirth.
• Sodium-free seltzer water. Sometimes, you just want a bit of bubbly. Try any of the mixes above with seltzer water for a treat. Too much seltzer might make you gassy, so limit quantities. On the other hand, if you?re already having gas pains, a bit of seltzer might be just the trick to help the gas come out.

Staying hydrated helps prevent pre-term contractions, can help minimize swelling in your feet and hands, staves off headaches, and, although I?m not sure how, it can even give you more energy. As my midwife said, ?We?d all be healthier, pregnant or not, if we drank the quantities of water we?re supposed to.?

I hope these tips help you meet your daily quota.

Yes, if you’re a woman who insists on a drink while you’re breastfeeding, you CAN have a beer. However, the Subcommittee on Nutrition During Lactation (1991) recommends that the nursing mother limits alcohol intake to no more than 0.5 grams of alcohol per kg. of body weight (e.g. a 60 kg-woman is allowed no more than 2 beers, 2 ounces of liquor or 8 ounces of wine per day). Anything more than that may result in development problems for the breastfed baby.

And if you’re one of those who have been advised to drink dark beer (like a Guinness or Heineken Dark or a Cervesa Negra) to boost your milk supply, now is the perfect time for you to also know that it’s a myth. The alcohol will relax you and may make your breasts seem fuller. The alcohol may also increase the prolactin levels in your blood. But these do not necessarily mean that your milk supply has increased. In fact, studies show that milk supply actually drops when a mother has had a drink, but the breasts feeling fuller and the baby sucking more aggressively due to the decrease in milk supply may deceive a mother that she actually produced more milk.

Milk supply will be affected by one’s diet, and establishing a good one will always be affected by proper latching, frequency of feeding, and breastfeeding attitude. And if you can make just one more sacrifice, don’t drink and feed.

Resources:
Having a beer to nurse
Beer, can it really help low milk supply?