Pregnant Or Nursing - Drugs And Alcohol?

[melissa569]

Ok...   I'm asking this both about pregnant moms and nursing moms, because I often hear drug-using or drinking mom's dismiss their behavior by saying the substance is "filtered out" by either the placenta, or the mammary glands

Comments

[krysty]

As far as breastfeeding goes it depends on what the mom is ingesting. Alcohol in moderate amounts is fine because a very small amount make it to the baby through the milk. The main concern with that is that the mom is sober enough to parent. Marijuana is a tougher situation because it is fat soluble, so that will go into the milk as well as get stored in the mom's body over time. Generally, I'd recommend don't use it while nursing, but if it's a small amount it may not be worth giving up nursing over. Risks vs benefits. As far as mushrooms go I'd say a definite no. Mushrooms I'm really not sure, because everything I've heard is that anything harder than marijuana is a definite no. With all of these things my first concern would be the mother's ability to parent while intoxicated. The body does do a pretty good job filtering things out for nursing babies, but for newborns I would steer clear of anything more than a glass of wine or a single beer because the baby's neurological development may not be able to handle it as well as an

[max_ambiguity]

In addition to what everyone else said, I just wanted to point out that "hard liquor" isn't any worse than wine or beer for babies. It's all about the percent of alcohol by volume. Some cocktails will have more than a glass of beer, but some will be roughly the same. Alcohol is cleared from breast milk as it is cleared from the bloodstream (as is caffeine), so you can drink while breastfeeding in the sense that you don't need to completely abstain. Breastfeeding while drunk is a bad idea, however.

We know from prescription drug studies that some drugs aren't excreted in breast milk, but we also know that many are and I wouldn't dare assume that shrooms or anything else aren't without several research studies proving it.

[futurenurselady]

There have been multiple scientific research studies published in reputable medical journals about how alcohol and street drug use in pregnant and nursing mothers is harmful to a growing fetus or a breastfeeding baby. References to this disorder have been made even in very old literature, such as the Bible, and ancient Greek and Roman writings. ( http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/6/868.full from The Oxford Journal

[tender_star]

Please report her to your state's/country's version of CPS. It is absolutely harmful to the baby to nurse if she is under the influence of illegal drugs and alcohol.

[childlike_faith]

Agreed completely. Even the thought of being responsible for a child under the influence of all of these substances at once is scary to me.

[snuck]

I'd educate her first, because there are some seriously under educated people out there.

If that failed I'd consider CPS though. Gotta give the woman a chance first...

[thesynergizer]

Other people gave you good answers. I am adding that to me the bigger concern than what's in the milk is that she had the baby with her and was trying to parent while high. Not ok. Much more likely she would physically hurt or neglect the baby due to the substances effect on her than that the milk would be harmful. Not saying it couldn't be (with shrooms and pot it probably IS) but just that the high mother would be a way bigger concern. Sounds like a druggie trying to justify her inability to quit.

[mariah00]

Sounds like a druggie trying to justify her inability to quit.

This! I am also hopping on the calling-CPS-bandwagon. That woman make me sad and angry all at the same time!