Drinking & BreastFeeding Don't Mix

[missile]

27 year old Lorinda Hawkins of Oshgosh,Wisc had been out drinking before going home to feed her 4 month daughter. She fell asleep while breastfeeding the little girl,and passed out on top of her.The baby was smothered to death and Mommy is being charged with child neglect[her second offense] and could face up to 29 years in jail and a 100 thousand dollar fine.

 

[GreenGreta]

People are feckin stupid. Bad enough she's breastfeeding while drunk. Jesus

 

[GL Schmitt]

Okay, so what’s that difference between breastfeeding under the influence and driving under the influence?

The penalty for BUI seems out of proportion to the penalty for DUI, if you ask me.

Here is another example of discrimination in sentences between crimes of similar seriousness.

And it's always the one to which no old white man can be found guilty that invariably garners the heaviest penalty.

Whyizzat? :?

 

[Canucklehead]

RE: Drinking & BreastFeed

Yet another case that only reinforces a long held belief that there should be a 'general stupidity' law.... alternately... "The Darwin Law" .... in this day n age though it's highly unlikely there is enough prison space for something like this.

 

[GreenGreta]

Okay, so what’s that difference between breastfeeding under the influence and driving under the influence?
Whyizzat? :?

The biggest difference I see is that when your breastfeeding, your poor innocent baby is sucking back her first jack daniels. Hey, I don't think she ordered that.

 

[missile]

I was thinking there should be a study on the chemicals and pollutants that are in breast milk..and whether the normal formulas are better for babies than breast milk.

 

[tracy]

The studies have already been done. Breast milk is superior to formula healthwise (obviously unless mom is drinking excessively, using drugs, etc).

Drinking and holding a baby is never a good idea, and doing so while extremely tired is just as bad. It's one reason why co-sleeping is still discouraged by so many docs.

 

[manda]

Under circumstances such as these, mothers who abuse their babies in this manner- i.e passing on liquor through breastmilk, should be forced to take the drug that causes breast-milk production to dry up

 

[GL Schmitt]

Re: RE: Drinking & BreastFeeding Don't Mix

Okay, so what’s that difference between breastfeeding under the influence and driving under the influence?
Whyizzat? :?

The biggest difference I see is that when your breastfeeding, your poor innocent baby is sucking back her first jack daniels. Hey, I don't think she ordered that.

I thought my question was self-evident. What is the difference, judged legally as a socially reckless action, between BUI and DUI?

BUI puts the baby at a small risk of minor harm, while DUI puts everybody sharing the road at risk of damages ranging from incidental all the way up to terminal.

Yet one perpetrator gets a penalty of 29 years and $100,000 fine, while the other (depending upon the quality of his lawyer) may get nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

I was not defending the woman’s actions, merely noting the different penalties for what seems to be a similar, or slighter, crime.

I still hold to that judgement.



As for how breastfeeding mothers and alcohol mix:

Online sources vary drastically in their advice, corelated to the prejudices of the publishing group, varying from absolutely forbidden alcohol to the other extreme of recommending alcohol (erroneously) as a remedy for mothers with low milk production.

Until recently, some mothers were advised to drink small quantities of alcohol to increase their milk production. The belief that drinking increased the mother’s output proved to be the result of changes in prolactin and oxytocin levels.

The increase in prolactin levels result in less milk production, although it may also have given the mother a false feeling of fullness.

The decrease of oxytocin levels would slow the release of the nourishment to the infant.


While pregnant mothers always pass any alcohol consumed on to her unborn child, since alcohol is not trapped in the milk, breastfeeding mothers are permitted to imbibe, provided they abstain a few hours before feedings.

Drinking alcohol does not seriously harm the baby (or the mother) provided it is restricted to no more than 12 units of alcohol a week, and no more than two units in any one day.

There is even one listing that includes a chart to help one estimate, by body weight and time, the duration to wait for a standard volume of alcohol to be eliminated, before safely commencing breastfeeding.

Suspiciously, however, one of the organizations listed as contributing to the information cited in this article is the “Brewers Association of Canada” http://www.cfpc.ca/cfp/2002/Jan/vol48-jan-clinical-1.asp

Personal aside: It has been quite some time since I have had any intimate experience with this topic, but as I recall, those several hours waiting period would effectively eliminate the time for the mother to actually enjoy her drink; but then, my experience comes from a time before the proliferation of pumps and human milk storage technology.

 

[Andygal]

RE: Drinking & BreastFeed

The only bright side to this is that she has effectively prevented her apparently defective judgement genes from being passed on to the next generation. Unless she has other kids she's unlikely to have another oppurtunity to pass on her genes. By the time she gets out of the slammer she'll be to old to reproduce therefore insuring that there will be fewer idiots in the next generation.

Hurray for natural selection!

 

[tracy]

It's the yeast in beer that has been used as a remedy for increasing milk production, not alcohol in general. One beer. Not a dozen. I know some lactation consultants who still recommend using the yeast, you can get it in caplets from the health food stores. There are other herbal remedies they recommend at the same time (blessed thistle, fenugreek, etc). Fortunately most drugs don't get passed on to the baby through breast milk, if they did women who wanted to breastfeed wouldn't be allowed any pain meds in labor.