Having a glass of wine and breastfeeding

[Missybaby]

BFing on demand, trying to get into 3 hourly routine at the moment. Usually feed say 6 or 7pm, then have a (well earned and desperately needed) glass of red wine, then feed at 9 or 10pm. Has the alcohol affected the milk supply by then?? If I expressed in the morning and saved this for the late night feed, then expressed off the 10pm feed and chucked it away, would the 2.30am feed then be OK???

Does anyone get what I'm trying to ask/explain here??? Trying not to be too confusing but hope you know what I'm talking about!

I personally wouldn't worry about one glass of wine straight after bfing. I wouldn't bother expressing.

But I could be in the minority.

I did!

yes, well that's been my view point until now, but would really like two glasses of wine and think that that would be bad of me...

I wouldn't worry about expressing. I frequently had a glass of wine (or two) before/during a feed.

No need to pump and dump.

I drink regularly, more than a glass!

Alcohol goes into the blood stream and breastmilk at the same rate so for every unit you drink it takes roughly (impossible to calculate properly) an hour to leave the breastmilk.

It takes a lot of alcohol, something like three times the drink driving limit to affect a baby drinking breastmilk so to make any difference to your baby you need to be quite bloody sloshed and feed immediately.

I wouldn't bother expressing at all, and if you do express after drinking for your own comfort then don't throw it away, keep it!

I personally wouldn't bother expressing - but there again I find it a real fag.

ok, i'm feeling less guilty already! victoriansqualor, how do you know all that?

You will have metabolised a lot of the alcohol. I really wouldn't worry about it. You wouldn't be over the driving limit at 9 or 10 pm, even if you had a couple of (small) glasses of wine. Two small glasses of wine (or 300ml), in an average sized woman (around 9 stone) would give a blood alcohol of around 0.08%. You subtract about 0.01% every 40 minutes after drinking. The amount of alcohol in your bloody would be roughly equivalent to that in your milk.

Personally, I don't think it's worth worrying about 50-60mg of alcohol per 100ml of breastmilk. It's just such a tiny amount. It's not like you mainline the alcohol to the milk!

Tiktok told me, she knows everything.
Hang on I'll find you one of the best threads about this, there have been tons.

Agree with VS, don't pump and dump - 2 glasses is fine. Medicinal purposes I would say

here
If you look at my last post, I've linked three threads.
Have a read.

Let's say you are at the drink driving limit of 80mg per 100ml of blood. This is from drinking 2 large glasses of wine (500ml @ 12%).

Let's assume that 100ml of blood weighs 100g, so the drink driving % is 80/100/1000*100 = 80/1000 = 0.08%, substantially down from the original 12% of the wine.

Assuming the baby drinks a proportionate amount of breastmilk and metabolises it at the same rate, their resultant blood concentration will be 0.0064% or 64ppm.

You can reduce this concentration because it assumes that you gulp the wine and it passes into your bloodstream in one fell swoop, and then your baby gulps it etc.

You can increase the concentration by factoring in a more conservative metabolisation rate for the baby. Even if you doubled it, it would still be a low amount.

To be ultra conservative, you can have your half-bottle of wine right after a feed, and you will be fairly safe by the time you need to feed your baby 3 hours later. A large glass of wine should take 2 hours to clear your system.

Personally, I wouldn't dump it!

I think a lot of people assume you have to be a saint to breastfeed... Just live your life and have fun!

oh dear is an average sized woman really nine stone? I need a glass of wine......

Thanks to everyone for your help (just been reading those links). Feel a huge sense of relief!

@9 stone!

what is 9 stone in pounds?

9 stone is 126 pounds. That isn't average weight for most women, I don't think, especially not breast-feeding (so presumably relatively recent) mothers!

Missy - I would echo the other posts

There will be plenty of thing for you to fel guilty about and fret over, being a Mum. I wouldn't worry about having a glass or two of wine and BF

I never pumped and dumped - what a waste! Agree with other posters, just have the wine, you've earned it. I think some wrong misguided people imagine that the wine somehow goes straight into the boob unchanged and then your baby drinks it which is where this stupid advice comes from.

Oh, that's just ridiculous - 9 stone!

If you weigh more than 9 stone, then you will have more water in your body (as well as fat) and so can actually drink more. The water in your body "dilutes" the alcohol. It's why men, pound for pound can drink more than most women. They have a higher water to fat ratio.

9 stone !

I rarely go out, all my clothes are chosen for easy access to boobs and I can't remember the last time I had a lie-in or more than 6 hours sleep at a stretch. But you can't take my wine away from me (hic).

Seriously tho - I can't drink more than 1 glass these days without getting a fuzzy head.

• DD 5 weeks, Ive had a glass of red whilst breastfeeding quite a few times - I don't feel this is an issue. By the time I got to feed her again it wouldve left my system.

• 9 stone - yeah right - whatever

• I agree with you Greedy, more than a glass and I'm anybodys these days!

I cheated and did mix feeding (one bottle a day) and ended up moving that one bottle from 7pm (to stop the all evening sucklying) to 10pm so I could drink without guilt!

To be honest I don't think it affects them unless you drink loads regularly