To think this is dangerous advice from a midwife?

”if you can find the baby you can feed the baby” (but I’d advise a more sober supervisor)

Well its over 30 years ago now but my midwife told me the best time l could drink was when feeding the baby as that milk wouldnt have any alcholol in it.
Only once did l over do it, honestly babies and hangovers don't mix, but the odd glass is absolutely fine.

Standard advice. You’re getting get up unnecessarily

The midwife is right.

I bet she was saying it in the sense of - you would have to be really, really blackout drunk before your milk is too alcoholic for a newborn, you could be totally wasted and it would still be fine. Not in the sense of yeaaaaah go get wasted!! Just more of an explanation of how little alcohol passes through to milk.

There are obviously other good reasons to avoid drinking too much when you have a young baby. Hangovers being one. Increased risk of accidents. Effect on your own health etc.

I don't know if the midwife or your friend mentioned it, but co-sleeping was the main reason I avoided alcohol when my DC were babies - the combination of bedsharing and a parent having drunk alcohol is incredibly dangerous, so never ever do this. There are ways to make co-sleeping safer, but never with alcohol (or other drugs).

This. You only have to read some of the nonsense on here to realise that there can be a huge gulf between what is said and what people hear.
One that sticks in my mind was an OP ranting about how her GP had told her she must stop having showers immediately. She was asking if it was really true that she could never have a shower again.
It subsequently transpired that she was in the habit of taking long, very hot showers and using body scrub liberally. Her legs were itchy and inflamed.
The GP probably said not to continue with this but have shorter, cooler showers and stop scrubbing.
What she heard was never ever have a shower or wash anything ever again.
So I take things with a pinch of salt.

That's what I was told, and it wasn't that long ago. But it is amazing how advice changes-my gran said they were advised to have stout.

I’d never get bent out of shape over anything someone claims a HCP told them. I’ve witnessed over many many years what people believe they’ve been told can be miles apart from what they’ve actually been told.

Someone’s posted guidelines and you can ask your own midwife in person.

The NHS tells everyone not to drink

For breastfeeding mothers specifically its paternalism

But it's having the opposite effect because it means some women choose not to breastfeed so they can still drink socially, rather than treating women like adults able to make choices.

For what it's worth feeding a child with a hangover is rubbish and not recommended. But it's not unsafe for the child.

It's many years since I breastfed my DC but I avoided alcohol. I'm sure we were advised to, it just carried on from not drinking during pregnancy. When did this change?

Infact, she literally said she can drink and drink and drink until she is wasted.

yeah - I do not believe the midwife said this, literally or otherwise

Why is the NHS official advice on their website completely at odds to this? I pasted it above. Here's the link: https://www.nhs.uk/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/breastfeeding-and-lifestyle/alcohol/

I'm happy to accept that you would have to be utterly shitfaced before even the slightest amount of alcohol gets through to the baby. But I also think "utterly shitfaced" is many levels of drunkenness above "illegal to drive a car", and maybe nobody should be as drunk as that when they are looking after a baby 😬

I genuinely don’t think she was, someone could twisting her words - either the friend or OP.

I believe the midwife was simply making the point - you’d have to drink a LOT of alcohol before any of it would reach baby via your milk.

Yes this is the midwife’s point. I don’t think she was actually telling your friend to get wasted with a baby 😆

Accidentally posted twice

The midwife should have mentioned however, that it's not safe to bed share with baby after you have been drinking. Even if you think right now that you will never bed share, lots of people do so it's best to know how to do it safely.
Congratulations on your pregnancy.

That's out of date information. Recent studies have proved otherwise and shown alcohol is nearly all filtered out of milk production and only a very miniscule amount would filter through - not at harmful levels. It wasn't studied before - much like many aspects pertaining to female biology.

However it's never advisable to drink too much while caring for a baby, breastfeeding or otherwise.

Having a small glass or 2 of wine will not harm your child while breastfeeding. It isn't the same case for pregnancy though where alcohol should be avoided all together.

Whaaat???

It's not dangerous advice, she's just saying you don't have to put your life on hold to breastfeed. It's not like being pregnant.

You can't physically drink enough to make your milk a risk, but obviously there needs to be someone sober enough to care for the baby and you can't bedshare if you've had a drink.

Absolutely true. There's no way a parent can drink enough that their breastmilk would become alcoholic enough to be classed as alcoholic to a baby. Imagine drinking a pint of beer, maybe 6% of that is alcohol therefore if diluted in an adult's liquid volume of their entire body, the alcohol percentage of breastmilk would be 0.04%.

A typical infant feed is roughly 120 ml to 150 ml.
At a milk alcohol concentration of 0.04% (0.04 g/dL), a 150 ml feed delivers approximately 0.06 grams of ethanol.

Distributed across an infant's total body water (~3 liters for a 4 kg baby), this produces an infant blood alcohol level of around 0.002%. This level is metabolically negligible and comparable to the trace ethanol produced naturally by normal gut bacteria or small amounts of fruit juice.

Sorry, wrong thread! I’ll ask for it to be deleted.

It's a weird thing of her to say, but she not wrong. The science is very clear on this

My hall of residence was mixed sex 35 years ago. It wasn’t an issue for me.

It's common sense to not drink when handling a newborn, especially while also dealing with lack of sleep. The NHS shouldn't be encouraging new mums to get pissed.