Milk and Beer Do Not Mix
When I was a breastfeeding mother, I did not abstain from alcohol. I didn't party like a college kid, but I didn't deny myself the glass of wine or bottle of beer that I am known to enjoy a few times a week.
So where exactly is the line at which combining drinking and breastfeeding becomes a bad choice? Like pornography, I think I'd know it if I saw it, or came anywhere close to it. Certainly being drunk while breastfeeding is a bad, a stupid choice. But criminal?
I found a post today on a local parenting blog about a young mom who was arrested for drunken breastfeeding. She lost custody of her child.
Should she have lost her baby for this offense? Is it criminal or just bad parenting? Aren't we all guilty of bad parenting? I would never do what this woman did, but I've made plenty of bad choices as a mom.
Is it better to criminalize this woman? Or give her support, resources, options, directions, possibilities to make better choices?
Is that too bleeding heart liberal of me?
I may sound like I know exactly what I think of this question, but I really don't. I'm horrified by the visual picture I have of a drunken woman with a babe at her breast, disgusted really. Is it criminal?
Go read this post. Then come back. And tell me what you think.
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Comments
Here's what should have happened. Local family services should have had an opportunity to interview the woman and determine if she needed counseling and to determine if the baby was being raised in a safe environment. Depending on the outcome of the investigation, steps could have been taken or not taken to best deal with the child's welfare.
One os the many sad things about this case is that an opportunity for instruction and education may have been missed.
Thank you for leaving your comment. It helped me figure this whole thing out.
If she was the only adult with the child and so incapacitated that she could not safely care for the baby, I certainly understand the need to step in at the time. However, I don't think it should matter how she was feeding the baby.
If they would have left the baby at home if she'd been feeding formula, they should have done the same for breastfeeding.
Nursing moms have enough mis-information and lack of support to deal with already. The last thing we need is women being fearful of loosing their babies if they are seen nursing while having a drink.
Breast milk, even with moderate drinking (and even with heavy drinking), use of most medicines etc is still the healthiest choice for babies.
*I do realize this woman was past the point of moderate drinking on this occasion and was commenting on the part of the article where they discussed breastfeeding & alcohol consumption.