I found this story on ABC News about a woman breast-feeding her baby while she was drunk.
Police found Stacey Anvarinia breast-feeding her 6 week old baby when drunk, while responding to a domestic disturbance call at her home. Where she tells police she had been assulted by her boyfriend, who was not there at the time. She was arrested and later pleaded guilty to child neglect, and faces up to 5 years in prison. Now, other women are questioning if "modest drinking" could risk a criminal charge for themselves. A retired OB, Dr. Amy Tuteur, who has been following the case says, "since when is breast-feeding while drunk a crime?" "Drinking to the point of intoxication, or binge drinking, by breast-feeding mothers has not been adequately studied," in published advice to mothers. The American Academy of Pediatrics says "excessive alcohol consumption by a breast-feeding mother can lead to drowsiness, deep sleep, weakness, and abnormal weight gain in an infant." Dr. Lori Feldman-Winter said " after drinking a glass of wine, a woman should obstain from breast-feeding for 2-3 hours." Police never did a blood-alcohol test on Anvarinia, so they don't really know how much she had to drink.
My first response to this story was that I couldn't believe a mother would get drunk and breast-feed her baby. Maybe some women are not meant to have children.
My reaction did not change much throughout the story, just made me realize how stupid some people are. If you chose to have a child then you know not to drink while your pregnant, because the baby will receive everything you eat/drink. So if your breast-feeding your baby....same thing! Why would a woman risk her baby's health so she could get drunk? What's more important drinking, or feeding your baby? If you want to go out and drink for the night, then make sure you have a babysitter, and formula so the baby won't get alcohol in his/her system. This story upsets me so much because i have a 7 month old baby myself. I dont breast feed, nor do i drink, but if i decided to breast-feed, then that would mean giving up drinking for my baby's health purposes. Any real mother would have know better, and thought more about their baby then themselves. And as far as the police not doing a blood-alcohol test on her, even if she weren't completely intoxicated, she still should'nt have been breast-feeding while drinking a little bit. I am 22 years old and i know better than to do something that could injure my baby, and this girl is 26 years old. What was she thinking? Grand Forks Police Lt. Rahn Farder says, "This case is more than just the breast-feeding. It was the totality of the circumstances. It is quite unusual for a mother to be breast-feeding her child as we are conducting an investigation, whether she was intoxicated or not." (Boyfriend assult investigation). I'm sorry, but if my boyfriend assulted me, and my baby was hungry while the police officers were there, and I wasnt drunk of course, then i would probably go ahead and breast-feed my baby. I'm not going to let my baby starve. However, there are ways to do it and still be private about it, such as putting a blanket over the baby's body and over my shoulder, so nothing is seen. That is one thing I disagree with in this story.
All in all, she deserved what she gets, and hopefully other mothers learn from her mistakes, and put their babies first. If you want to breast-feed......DON'T DRINK. Lesson learned! :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
From one mother to another I agree completely with you. I have noticed that today's society of wonna be mothers and real mothers are nothing from the, "Old School" women need to relearn that they children need to come first. People that are able to be blessed with children often take them so for granted, and those who cant or no longer can would give anything to have them, hurt so badly from what they see happening to such wonderful blessings.
ReplyDeleteI've breastfed my son from day 1--even though I had to pump for the NICU to feed him through a tube. The lactation consultant actually told me to find a kind of beer I liked (if I could) and drink a little before pumping--it would help relax me, and there were nutrients in the beer that would be good for the baby coming through the breastmilk. She did NOT tell me to drink a whole beer, or drink 'till I was drunk.
ReplyDeleteI do have the occasional drink, now that the baby sleeps through the night, and I have a full 12 hours to get it out of my system. But with that said, I do not have my drink before the baby's nursed the last time for the night, and I never have more than one, and rarely do I have more than one per month.
You picked a good story. I agree with your opinion that the mother should be responsible for deciding to drink and breast-feed. With options like you mentioned there is no reason for something like this.
ReplyDeleteOk I guess I will be the first male to post on this. My wife was told to drink a beer daily to help with milk production, but she needed to wait for 2 hours before feeding. I think that this mother should have thought twice, but maybe it was the situation that caused her to feed her baby while being drunk.
ReplyDelete