Alcohol and Breastfeeding

[Katsie87]

So, when can I have my first large glass of Sauvingnon Blanc I am missing so much....?!
A brief history, I have been pregnant 5 times over the last 4 years, so that's been a lot of alcohol free months! Sadly I have had three miscarriages and a stillbirth. Currently pregnant again, not far from third Trimester and boy am I missing a glass of wine! Or two...! A lot more than I have in previous pregnancies.
This post is kind of light hearted, of course my main priority is a health baby arriving. But, what's the script with alcohol and breastfeeding? I am hoping to exclusively breastfeed. Once a routine established I am very open to expressing and giving baby both bottle and breast.
When did you first have your first drink? What's the 'rules'? When is it realistic to introduce a bottle with expressed milk?
Will I ever have wine again....?!

You can drink while breastfeeding. The alcohol stays in the milk the same length of time it is in your bloodstream, so no need to pump and dump just try to time the glass just after a feed. I am going for dinner out tonight and plan on having one or two and my LB is 13 weeks, have been expressing since week 4 I'd say. Good luck with it all!

The advice is if you are sober enough to look after a baby then they are sober enough to breast feed.

A glass will do no harm. You'd need a few for it to affect your milk significantly, and a few more to have an effect on baby. Some women choose not to drink whilst bf but one here and there will be fine (and it sounds as though you deserve a glass!).

Wishes for a healthy pregnancy and baby for you

The amount you’d need to drink for alcohol to get into the breast milk, you’d be too drunk to pick up the baby in any case. Have some wine.

Having a cider while breastfeeding my 5 week old right now! It's fine as long as you are sober enough to look after baby (I limit myself to 2 glasses)

As long as you aren't too drunk to care for the baby you are fine. I read an article where they tested alcohol percentage after drinking quite a bit and it was far lower than the cut off for non-alcoholic beer.

A glass or two is fine; to be honest after 9 months of no alcohol and the lack of sleep I couldn’t cope with drinking for quite a while as it’d just send me off to sleep

They say up to two glasses on a full stomach is OK.

Heavy drinking (four or more drinks) has been found to slightly affect the baby's sleep patterns, so I think two drinks is the absolute upper limit. I think drinking that much would be irresponsible when caring for a baby even if you were formula feeding, as it would create a risk of things like nodding off on the sofa while holding the baby.

Oh thank you ladies, what a relief, I will and can have a glass of wine in the not to distant future 😂

Alcohol enters your milk at the same ratio as plasma (blood) - 1:1, unlike some medications which become more concentrated in breastmilk.

A blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% is the drink drive limit. A blood alcohol concentration of 0.5% results in death.

But if you were to drink a beverage with 0.5% alcohol it would actually be classed as alcohol free! E.g. Beck's Blue. Or the blood or breastmilk of someone so drunk they are dead...

So essentially as long as you're sober enough to look after your baby, it's fine