What do you think?
There has long been a debate about whether or not you can drink while you’re breastfeeding and, unfortunately, Beyoncé has found herself in the middle of a fairly heated one.
The mum of three, who welcomed twins in July, shared a picture on Instagram of her drinking a glass of red wine.
While she probably didn’t think too much about it, a lot of people have been commenting about the fact that she is still breastfeeding and therefore shouldn’t be drinking.
Some of the comments have been:
“During the four hours after a breastfeeding mother consumes an alcoholic beverage such as 4 ounces of wine, one mixed drink, or one can of beer – babies who nurse consume about 20 percent less milk.”
“You can’t drink wine when you’re breastfeeding. What are you thinking?”
A lot of mothers opt for the ‘pump and dump’ option to be on the safe side, but as we found out recently, that’s not always necessary.
The amount of alcohol that actually gets into your breastmilk is pretty minimal. It’s about 1 to 2 percent, in fact. And alcohol doesn’t get ‘trapped’ either – as you sober up, your milk naturally returns to its normal state.
Slate reported recently that,”Ultimately, there is a higher concentration of alcohol in some fruit juices – which can contain up to 0.1 percent alcohol due to fermentation of the sugars – than there is in the breast milk of a tipsy nursing mom.”
La Leche League International acknowledges: “Breastfeeding mothers receive conflicting advice about whether alcohol consumption can have an effect on their baby, which often leaves mothers feeling like they have more questions than answers.”
But, it adds: “When the breastfeeding mother drinks occasionally or limits her consumption to one drink or less per day, the amount of alcohol her baby receives has not been proven to be harmful.”
Of course, if you’re breastfeeding it’s never a good idea to have too many drinks. Simply because it’s not a good idea to be drunk and caring for a small baby.
