Alcohol. Is this why women don't breastfeed?

[TheRealAmandaClarke]

Obviously its different for everyone.
But speaking to friends recently has left me wondering if their primary reason for either. It bf or stopping early is so they can drink.
Well, that's the subtext. It's not being said directly.
I miss drinking (and no "the occasional glass of wine" doesn't really cut the mustard for me) so I can understand why ppl make that choice.
Something I just read on another thread also made me wonder. Are we so looking forward to drinking after being pregnant that it affects our choice of feeding?
Tbh.i was a bit surprised about the advice to not drink when bf
I'd envisaged emerging from the birthing pool with a massive glass of tattinger

I was told by my HV "off record" that if you're sober enough to drive you're sober enough to feed :o

I have had a few nights out and had a few drinks at home and DD seems fine, alcohol filters through milk at 1 unit per hour I believe so unless you plan to get rat-arsed you're good to go!

Oh and of a large family and from my friends I am the only one to BF, the main reasons against it being "its gross", "don't want saggy tits" and "couldn't deal with a baby 24/7"

When I had dd, I thought I'd stop bf at 8 months coinciding with Christmas so I could be more relaxed about drinking.
However, when it came to it, I realised I wasn't ready to stop and could cope with a more sober Christmas.
I stopped with both dcs when their first teeth came through and feeding became painful.

You can drink while breastfeeding - see this.

It might be one of the reasons fewer younger people breastfeed - it's a bit easier to leave the baby with a babysitter too so you can make a proper night of it. Can't say bf has interfered much wiith my little tipple and early night habit :/ In the late 70s / early 80s my mum was given a huge list of things she mustn't eat or drink when she was feeding, including all pain killers and broccoli. That would put you off.

Sorry TheRealAmandaClarke I didn't mean you at all! Fully get that you were drawing attention to it!
:)
I'm talking about the anecdotes you were drawing attention to IYSWIM?

Norah BROCCOLI? Why on earth not?

I breast feed for years and years.

I'm an adult, bar a couple of BBQs and the odd Wedding I haven't had occasion to drink like a student, since I was a student - grow up and be kind to your liver!

The official recommended amounts to drink when not pregnant or breastfeeding are conservative compared to most people's real habits though IME.

Alcohol actually doesn't come through to milk very strongly at all. It's roughly 1:1 blood alcohol level to milk alcohol level. If you drank the blood of someone who had been drinking (sorry gross but bear with me!) you wouldn't feel any effects at all. It would have to be a serious hardcore alcoholic right after a mass binge to be alcoholic in the slightest.

Very useful chart here explaining the effects of alcohol at each level of blood alcohol content. You're looking at being pretty seriously bladdered by the time it's at 0.1% - certainly not sober enough to be holding a baby and bypassing the amount that most adults would drink on a night out. By the time blood alcohol level is at 0.2% most people would pass out. 0.3% blood alcohol level is a risk of death.

Before 1991, gripe water was 3.6% alcohol. Obviously this isn't sold any more but it was fairly recently that this was thought safe - presumably because it is given in such small quantities.

Jack Newman, a paediatrician who specialises in breastfeeding knowledge and is very highly respected, posted this to his facebook page recently.
Non facebook link

A small glass is enough for me so I breastfed fine. I'm not into getting up with a hangover at 5:30am with small children anyway.

What annoys me more is when people put their babies straight onto formula with no medical reason and not attempting to try breast feeding.

This may be a thick question, but if it is relatively safe to drink alcohol and breast feed due to such a small amount of alcohol entering the bloodstream, does the same not apply to drinking in pregnancy?

I know ladies who would categorically not touch a drop when pregnant, but would happily have a glass or two while breast feeding.

Or is it completely different?

Many a happy summer afternoon on maternity leave was spent in the local beer garden, breastfeeding whilst sipping a cold glass of Chenin Blanc. Bliss!

Janek - aside from the annoying use of the term 'mamas' that is a really useful link! Thank you.

Eminy it's different physiologically (blood/placenta/umbilical cord v consumed and digested breast milk) and of course processed differently by the body. So it is OK to eat and drink some things - including small amounts of booze - when BFing which would not be advised when pregnant.

IMO, yes, it's one of the main reasons people (in my family) give up/don't start.

Other reasons were "couldn't be arsed with that" "need a night out away" and "don't want a clingy one". Actual quotes

Can I also point out that I'm the youngest out of 6 women in my family to give birth in the last 3 years (all late teens-mid twenties) and the only one to continue bf past 6 months. Others either ff from birth or mix fed until 6m. They give me a hard time for bf my 2 year old, they think it's gross

I don't think that's true about younger mothers, I know plenty that bf and are too tired to go out partying. Just saying

mix fed until 6m

Which would mean they breast fed (but did not exclusively breast feed)?

Was just going to post the same Dr Jack Newman thing that Bertie Botts posted. I think the alcohol content of milk after a few drinks is something akin to that of a small yoghurt: you'd actually need to be latching baby on to your unconscious form for them to be getting a dangerous amount of booze in your milk; the main danger with drinking while BF is dropping the baby, not alcohol poisoning. Agree also that pregnancy is a different matter (and a big bugbear of mine: a lot of things, including various medicines, are safe in BF but not in pregnancy and a lot of "experts" don't seem to know the difference).

I actually think the whole (erroneous) idea that you can't drink while BF, or if you do you need to go through this whole farrago of "pumping and dumping" the evil toxic milk (while the only reason you'd really need to pump and dump would be for comfort if you were out late - I remember someone here posting they'd been told to pump and dump for 24 hours after drinking so it would be "out of their milk" by a HV) is very discouraging to breastfeeding - ties in with the whole idea of BF as some kind of massive self-sacrifice, how hard it is, how you can't go about your normal life and it's like extending pregnancy for another year or something. Ditto all the stuff about having to "watch your diet" (which you generally don't unless your baby has food sensitivities like CMPI) or misinformation about what medicines you can take (lots of them).

I don't think I'd have fed either of mine for as long if I couldn't enjoy the odd glass of wine or three. And yeah, what generally put a stop to my gallop was the fact that I had to look after a small baby and/or was likely to be up at stupid o'clock in the morning with children, nothing to do with BF.

Thanks squiz. I have not even had a sip since being pregnant (29 weeks) so it's nice to know I can have a guilt free glass of wine once baby comes and still breast feed. To be fair, as much of a lush as I was prior to pregnancy, I would sacrifice alcohol in favour of breast feeding in a heart beat if I needed to.

Yes evertonmint I found that very interesting a while ago. I have an 8mo old who I'm still bf and a toddler. They both sleep 7-7 99% of the time, I'll happily have a few glasses of wine once a week, knowing it won't affect my milk and knowing my own tolerance that I wouldn't be drunk in charge of dc.

If it is they're misguided.

The main reason not to drink within the first year is that having a hangover with a small baby in the house is just about the worst experience you can imagine. You'll only do it once and it won't matter if you're breast feeding or not

Oops. I fear I've given the impression that I'm desperate to get pissed
I'm really not.
I'm in my 40s now and I have done my fair share of partying tbh. And I have no desire to cope with a hangover on top of sleep deprivation.
I like a bloody early night.

squizita I take your point. I didn't feel offended.just pondering really. I thin it's interesting.

Well, I drink a full half a bottle of wine a week & have been bf for 2 years. I'm perfectly healthy, as is ds. He's made all his milestones on time. I also drink A LOT of water.

Having even a smidgeon of a hangover with anyone under the age of 5 in the house is utter lunacy

I do find it annoying how much received (utterly wrong) wisdom there is about drinking and breastfeeding.

The fact is alcohol doesn't hang around in your bm any longer than it does in your blood so you can drink and feed just fine. Besides no woman should be drinking more than 14 units a week, nobody should be binge drinking that in one go. A single 175ml glass of 13% wine is 2.3 units by the way.

If you follow alcohol guidelines (which is about one glass of wine a night) it makes no difference whether you are ff or bf; if you don't follow them then you are drinking too much.

I didn't think it sounded like you wanted to get pissed :) Just wanted to correct the myth that "Well one or two small glasses is okay but "

Pregnancy is different because you're pretty much sharing blood - it's not exactly that simple because the placenta does process things to an extent but pretty much whatever is in your blood, is in your baby's blood when you are pregnant. That's not so with breastfeeding, different things go into milk in different quantities, it's a lot to do with the size of the molecules and whether or not they are fat soluble. Cannabis for example is very fat soluble so is much more concentrated than alcohol in the milk, 1:4 rather than 1:1 IIRC, and nicotine is far less concentrated, to the point that passive smoking is a far, far bigger risk than the negligible risk of ingesting the milk of a smoker.

Most foodstuffs aren't passed along, the common allergens passed through milk are dairy, egg and soya. All very fat soluble.

My midwife advised me to drink WHILE breastfeeding :D. That way I'd have the longest interval between the alcohol getting into my blood and the next feed. And yes I sometimes had a glass of red while doing a late night feed.