Alcohol & Breastfeeding - new website busting myths & demystifying the science

[EmilyKMilkFacts]

Hi everyone,

Sharing a link to a website I've created that outlines key scientific research around light/moderate drinking and breastfeeding:
milk-facts.co.uk/

A bit of background - I've worked in Communications for over a decade and I'm a new mum, so perhaps it's not surprising that I wanted to improve information and messaging quality when it comes to health advice for ourselves and our babies. I've been really struck by the amount of restrictive yet unsubstantiated advice we're given in pregnancy and new parenthood. Moderate drinking and breastfeeding is a key example that's come up time and time again in my conversations with fellow new parents.

My aim in researching this topic and sharing the findings is to help parents make better-informed decisions for their own lives as well as their babies', and to hopefully alleviate some unnecessary worry and anxiety in the process.

Note: my website is independent and unfunded. I don't have any other motivation besides a desire to help new parents have access to useful information.

Any feedback is very welcome!

Great website! I will share on my local breastfeeding Facebook groups. Thanks for putting it together!

Hi OP,

Nice website. I that there is nowhere near enough comfort and evidence generally to show women that BF and drinking is generally safe. It’s not to try and persuade women to drink, but rather to reassure women that drinking and BF is safe.

Really like the alcohol content calculator but I think you need some parameters around it (ie how long would it take to decline? If I drank a litre of wine over 4 hours how would that affect alcohol content etc).

It would be great to show a bit of the “other side” of the argument - just why does the NHS have such flimsy advice on this? Why do people think they should abstain entirely etc.

Have you read Emily Oster’s books?

I think this is a great start but as a stand-alone site I don’t think it, on its own, would reassure me as it’s slightly lacking in content but it’s a really nice start IMO.