would it be possible for you to update this story on feministe? aside from all of the points made and the debate re: a woman’s right to breastfeed and consume alcohol, several other details have come out that make very clear the misogynist nature of this case. no consideration from the police for the beating that she took contributing to her behavior? no charges against the abusive boyfriend? no blood alcohol test to determine whether she was even drunk? seriously! how are these supposed law enforcement officers actually defining crime here? a man hitting a woman or mother maybe nursing while drinking? i know which of these scenarios would worry me the most!

it sounds to me like a) she had a record and is therefore suspect, and automatically guilty of being a “bad mother” and b) the police officers’ delicate sensibilities were offended when she nursed in front of them. unless everything i have read is completely wrong, i cannot find any justice in this situation at all, for the mother or her little baby who has now been ripped from its family, perhaps forever.

I think you are right that the milk would not be at dangerous levels of alcohol.

But here is the main thing that boggles my mind: She was beaten by her boyfriend and then SHE was arrested, while all reports are completely silent about HIM and what he was or was not doing.

Stunning!

I’d be interested to see the details of the case- being charged with child neglect if she was caring for the baby while totally plastered seems appropriate. Media sensationalizing aside, I’d like to know how the fact that she was breastfeeding the baby fits into the charges.

During breastfeeding, however, less than 2% of the alcohol consumed by the mom actually winds up in the breast milk, and only a fraction of that winds up in the baby’s blood. Plus the baby is much more developed than he/she was in utero so the risk is presumably less. So I will have a glass of wine or cocktail.

The one time I got drunk while I was nursing (it was our anniversary and my DH was sober), I gave my son a bottle of previously pumped breastmilk and then did the “pump-n-dump” thing.

No, but it’s problematic to assume that her breastfeeding translates directly into her being the sole person responsible for the infant at that point in time.

If mom’s partner gets trashed at the 4th of July bbq while mom’s on kid-duty, we tend not to get our knickers in a collective twist because we recognize that them being trashed doesn’t automatically translate into the kids playing in traffic unattended. When mom does the same thing, the knee-jerk societal response is a ZOMGWTFDEADBABIES, because, you know, if mom’s off the clock, clearly it’s a lord-of-the-flies situation. Any other adult in the household, having precisely zero interest or ability when it comes to safe-guarding children, just falls right off the frickin’ map.

I mean, I occasionally was allowed/asked to bottle-feed my infant siblings when I was 6. Was I providing any further care or acting as the person responsible for the baby right then? Of course not. I was a six-year-old. It’s not entirely analogous to having a mom’s night off but still being needed to feed the baby if you’re breastfeeding, but really, there’s nothing in that blurb that seems to actually say she was engaging in seriously problematic neglect without accepting the axiom of either booze-poisoned breastmilk or immutable maternal responsibility. We just follow the bouncing ball from “mom’s liquored up” to “baby’s gonna get eaten by the neighbor’s dog.”

“Police received a call about a domestic disturbance at Stacey Anvarinia’s home. Anvarinia claimed she was assaulted by her boyfriend. When the officers arrived at her home, they found Anvarinia “extremely intoxicated” and said she was “breast feeding her infant in front of us,” according to the incident report.

Police called an ambulance to evaluate the infant since alcohol can pass into a child’s system from a mother’s breast milk. The child was taken to the hospital, according to the incident report.”

From: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/04/29/2009-04-29_north_dakota_resident_stacey_anvarinia_arrested_for_breast_feeding_baby_while_dr.html#ixzz0JRVWULQb&C

So it seems they did gather some evidence from the baby, though it is not clear what that evidence shows.

But also, they were investigating a domestic disturbance, and they arrested the victim here.

And just for the record, men technically can breast feed if their mammary glands receive enough stimulation.

And Kat, holy shit. Is that even legal, what that barista did, to refuse service to someone on the grounds that she’s pregnant?

The idea is that on those days when it’s frankly all a little too much, you’re stressed, the baby’s stressed and so on, you have a glass of wine about 1/2hr before breastfeeding. Result, chilled calm and happy mother, chilled, calm and sleeping baby. I was just told to limit it to one glass and not to do it to often. Worked like a charm.

My mother, who formula fed, used gripe water instead. Don’t think she drank it herself though.