09/29/2022
There are so many myths surrounding alcohol and breastfeeding.
The most common is that you can’t drink. The reality is that drinking in moderation (one to two glasses of wine or beer occasionally), is safe, BUT you should wait until baby is 8 weeks+ since they’re unable to metabolize alcohol well.
The other most popular myth is to “pump and dump”. The idea behind it is to pump out the contaminated milk so it gets replaced with “clean” milk. But that’s not how milk production works! Like I mentioned in the post about our diets, human milk is made from our blood, not our stomach contents. The alcohol content of your milk is based on your blood alcohol content. As your blood alcohol decrease, so does the alcohol content in your milk. Pumping doesn’t have any impact on this process.
If you are too intoxicated to safely feed, and it’s time to feed baby, provide a bottle of previously expressed milk and pump for the missed feed to avoid clogs and protect milk supply. That milk can be saved for a milk bath or some other purpose other than feeding (or just dumped).
Lastly, there’s a myth that alcohol, especially beer, can increase milk supply. This is probably the hardest old wives tale to dismiss, because we want it to be true. Unfortunately, it’s just not! Research has shown that babies drink less milk after mom has consumed alcohol. The letdown reflex is diminished, so even if baby nurses as often as usual, they get less milk.
Read more about breastfeeding and alcohol here: https://www.llli.org/breastfeeding-info/alcohol/
