DO NOT PUMP AND DUMP 🙅🏻‍♀️🤱🏻‼️

ALCOHOL AND BREASTFEEDING:⠀

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Every time I read or hear someone recommend that a breastfeeding mother pump and dump or a mother is stating that she is about to pump and dump if she wants to have an alcoholic drink or few, it makes me cringe. ⠀

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Where did this term come from? ⠀

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Where did it start?⠀

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If you are sober enough to drive, you’re good to breastfeed.⠀

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FIRST! ⠀

*Alcohol enters into your milk and leaves your milk in the same way it enters and leaves your bloodstream. ⠀

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Pumping will not do anything to speed up this process⠀

and there is no need to get rid of your milk while you are drinking alcohol. Pumping does not clear alcohol from your breast milk.⠀

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Once the alcohol is out of your system, it is out of your milk.⠀

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SECOND! ⠀

*Drinking while breastfeeding is safe when done in moderation. ⠀

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SO I DON’T NEED TO PUMP AND DUMP?⠀

No, and the term pump and dump is pretty awful. Since we know alcohol leaves your breastmilk as soon as it leaves your bloodstream, the only reason you may want to pump is if you are going to be away from baby for a long period of time and need to maintain your supply ⠀

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The American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Breastfeeding advises “ingestion of alcoholic beverages should be minimized and limited to an occasional intake but no more than 0.5 g alcohol per kg body weight, ⠀

which for a 60 kg mother is approximately ⠀

2 oz liquor, ⠀

8 oz wine, ⠀

or 2 beers. ⠀

Nursing should take place 2 hours or longer after the alcohol intake to minimize its concentration in the ingested milk”⠀

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If you are drinking to get drunk/wasted , I still would never recommend that you pump and dump your breastmilk . ⠀

Save for a milk bath instead 😊