Breastfeeding & alcohol.

What did you do to de-stress while pregnant? Depends on how much you have, but regardless, you'll have to pump and dump. Make sure you pump enough beforehand to supply baby for a day or two while the alcohol leaves your system. It takes 24 hours for your blood alcohol level to be at 0

Alcohol is ethanol, which is exactly the same stuff we put in our gas tanks. ⛽️

if you’re wanting to be super safe, the nhs website recommends waiting 2 hours per drink before the next feed! do you have a pump? much easier for you if you can express beforehand so you don’t need to worry and can enjoy a drink or two☺️

Drinking while breast feeding is super common! I haven’t yet because I don’t know for some reason I am exploring stretching my sobriety a little farther. But.. I have been reading articles and chatting with other mom friends about it! It comes down to timing. If you are super anxious about it just pump before you drink so you have that stored to give baby if needed. But otherwise just wait a couple hours for the alcohol to process before nursing again. The pump and dump is a myth because your breast milk doesn’t “store” alcohol. But if there’s alcohol in your blood stream there will be trace amounts in your milk. Sooo it doesn’t sound like you’re looking to go crazy, but binge drinking would probably be a no go but a glass of wine to chill would be out of your system in an hour or two.

Do some research on it to make yourself feel better. If you’re going to, have one while breastfeeding so it doesn’t pass and you give yourself a window of time in between, go for something low alcohol percentage as only 2% of what’s in you transfers xx obviously don’t get ratarsed and don’t jeopardise babies safety otherwise I say one or two can’t hurt x

you actually don't have to pump & dump OR wait a set amount of time before feeding. breastmilk has the same alcohol content as your BAC. therefore it would literally take you to be in a coma with alcohol poisoning for your breastmilk to have the same alcohol content as a ripe banana. the main worry about feeding while intoxicated is dropping or smothering the baby, so as long as you're sober enough to safely handle your newborn or have a sober adult on hand to help then you're fine to feed baby 😊 xx

My sister is a lactation consultant and she told me that 2 servings per day is probably fine just not to go over that. I’ve had one drink and breastfed a couple hours later and it was fine :)

@Amanda man I wish wine were £1.50/litre…the dream 😂

https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/breastfeeding-special-circumstances/vaccinations-medications-drugs/alcohol.html

The amount of alcohol that goes through to your blood is absolutely miniscule. For perspective the LETHAL blood alcohol level for an adult is 0.4% A banana has between 0.2-0.4% alcohol depending on how ripe it is Nobody would bat an eyelid if (at weaning age) you gave your baby a mashed ripe banana, but since the alcohol content present in breastmilk is the same as your blood alcohol level, it's literally the equivalent alcohol content of someone passed out paralytic with alcohol poisoning and breastfeeding. You're fine! Have the drink

@Amanda who told you that?

@Amanda I’m not debating that alcohol is ethanol. I’m debating your recommendation that you have to pump and dump and not nurse for 1-2 days after drinking alcohol. That’s not what my midwife or lactation consultant recommend so I was wondering where you got your info.

For every drink you have it is best to wait 2 hours before feeding if you have a few drinks and you use previosuly pumoed milk u will have to pump and dump just so you dont get to full

@Lisa Oh, I see, I haven't heard any updates since my friends pregnancy 5 years ago. I guess my midwife will be informing me in the coming months.

To be honest, I did it when my LG was around 8/10 weeks, and I don't know if it was the alcohol or not, but after she was super upset and had few bad pooh.. so I stopped again. I've tried a few weeks back cause my LG is now 5m 1/2 and has a good length of sleep in the first part of the night (7.30/8 -> 3/4) so it have happened to have a glass or 2 of wine during dinner with a good meal.. as @Jennifer Ayliffe said you should wait at least 2h before BF.. that should work.. If your baby is that little, I would suggest holding on, even if it is har.. maybe find a fancy solution.. I'd stupid, but I was drinking coke from a wine glass.. 🤣 Give your baby the best now, and you will have a bit more freedom in a few months .