Boobs & Boos! Alcohol and lactation: Halloween edition!
It’s Halloween! You always go to your friend’s Halloween party. This year is different, though. This year you have a nursing baby. It’s hard enough to leave your babe behind for a few hours. The stress and confusion of what you’re supposed to do is haunting you. What are you going to do?
“Pump and dump!” the Facebook moms howl at you like a pack of werewolves. “It’s fine! The baby will be fine!”, your mother-in-law insists as she snatches your baby out of your arms and cackles like a banshee. Ok, maybe not quite like a banshee… You’re anxious. All the conflicting information online is making you feel like you have jellied brains. “Argh!”, you shout like a very frustrated zombie.
Having a little alcohol while nursing doesn’t have to be scary. You just have to find the right information and the right support. Hands shaking and with bated breath, you dial up your lactation consult. She answers. You sigh from relief.
Your lactation consultant asks you how much you plan to drink. Bashfully, you tell her that you’ll be having 2-3 drinks and have already ensured you have a safe ride home. The lactation consultant is not judgmental. Instead, she educates you.
“For every alcoholic drink that you have, you should wait 2 hours to feed your baby. Feed your baby before right you go to the party. If you have 2 drinks you should wait at least 4 hours to nurse your baby, and if you have 3 drinks you should wait at least 6 hours to nurse your baby.”
Cold chills run down your spine at the thought of not nursing your baby for 6 hours. You wonder aloud if the painful engorgement from waiting that long will be worth the night of fun. The lactation consultant explains that this is typically when people will ‘pump and dump’. They pump to relieve their breasts of engorgement. But, they have to dump the milk because there is too much alcohol in it. Typically, the amount of alcohol in the maternal bloodstream matches the amount of alcohol in the breastmilk. “Remember”, she says “6 hours is the minimum for 3 drinks, it could take longer for the alcohol to be completely gone.”
What if you mess it up? You quietly decide a poltergeist would be more tolerable than your current dilemma. The lactation consultant warmly reassures you that you’re a great parent, and that it’s a good thing you’re taking some time to have fun, and that you’re doing the right thing by asking questions so you can keep your baby safe.
“I know it’s not what you want to hear, but a foolproof way to shield your baby from alcohol is to avoid drinking”. She is correct that you didn’t want to hear that. You wail and moan like a ghost, turning the decision over and over in your head.
“Do you have pumped and properly stored breastmilk? Or formula? You may be too tired to try to nurse your baby once those 6 hours go by. And, your baby will likely need to eat sooner than that, anyways”, suggests your lactation consultant. Yes! You have both. Your mother-in-law will be staying the night, so she could feed the baby until the morning when the alcohol will certainly be worn off. Then, your little breastmilk vampire can get right back to suckling his alcohol-free milk.
Tearfully, you thank your lactation consultant. You put your costume on, you have dinner, nurse your sweet baby, and then head off to your party! Your mother-in-law texts you occasional updates that the baby is doing well. You have your three drinks and dance the night away among partygoers dressed in spooky costumes. You pump and dump once. It was a great night! Once you get home you crawl into bed and don’t feed your baby from breast until the early morning hours once the alcohol is worn off. All is well. The terror of navigating breastfeeding and alcohol has passed!
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Happy Halloween! Please have fun, be safe, and when in doubt- ask a professional. Lactation doesn’t have to be scary with the support of an expert.