Fresh off the heels of discussing painful sex after delivery, Snooki posted the above photo to her Instagram. In it, we were treated to a cute shot of little Angelo, some nice mood lighting and a giant invitation for mom shaming, which is exactly what Snooki got. When the torches were lit and pitchforks raised, one commenter responded with, “You not suppose to drink alcohol if you breastfeeding your baby.”
And this was exactly what Snooki knew would happen, especially since she’d discussed avoiding alcohol while nursing her son Lorenzo because she claimed she could smell the alcohol in her milk. Honestly, she waved the hashtag #ImAGoodMomISwear – like a red cape for folks to come at her. No sooner did the above commenter left her response, Snooki replied:
you’re not a mom. I allow myself to have a few glasses once a week to stay sane with 3 kids. I do what’s necessary to clean my milk for my baby. Let a mawma live and keep being 17.
I really don’t want to get into a should they/shouldn’t they on drinking during breastfeeding. I know there are very intense feelings on both sides of the argument. I know that most research done about the issue discusses alcohols effect on milk production and not harmful effects to the baby. I am also absolutely not suggesting keg stands during breastfeeding. But I am suggesting that Snooki knows people feel very strongly about the subject and that most likely influenced her photo and caption choice. Overall, I find Snooki’s post funny. And I think that’s why Snooki posted it, because she thought it was funny. But I don’t need to defend her because Snooki also loves to fight on social media. That’s also funny to her.
However, although I found it funny, I didn’t completely love her hashtags. Like CB, I’m not a fan of referring to wine as “mom/mommy juice.” Despite the fact that I have a job, most people see me as a stay-at-home mom. That’s fine, whatever. But it makes me bristle when people think that women who are stay-at-home moms can’t handle the task without “help.” If a professional woman goes out with her colleagues for a drink, it’s networking. But I have a glass of the 2014 Maldonado Cabernet Sauvignon because I cooked my dry aged New York to perfection, I don’t want strands of Mother’s Little Helper playing in the background. Sometimes moms have a glass of wine, or some other drink, for the exact same reasons other grown-ups have a drink. What I *need* is a nap.
Photo credit: Instagram and WENN Photos
The baby is eating from bottle. The milk is fine, she most likely pumped it before. It’s not like a glass of wine makes her toxic for the next 2 years.
If I had kids I’d probably need alcohol, too. That’s why I don’t have any.
This!😃
Same. It’s a glass of wine, it’s not like she’s getting wasted.
This.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Plenty of people pump and dump, or pump beforehand. As long as she’s waiting something like 2 hours after having a glass of wine to BF, there’s really no issue. Hell, if she’s only had a mouthful, she’s probably fine, really.
Either way, the baby is clearly drinking either previously pumped milk, or formula, so absolutely no shame from me.
You don’t even need to pump and dump, pump beforehand, or wait 2 hours, that’s been debunked:
“Assuming the worst possible scenario where a mother engages in binge drinking and ingests four drinks of 12 g pure alcohol and then breastfeeds her child at the time of the maximum blood alcohol concentration, the child would still not have a blood alcohol level of more than 0.005%. It appears biologically implausible that occasional exposure to such amounts should be related to clinically meaningful effects to the nursing children.”
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/bcpt.12149?fbclid=IwAR2fQMvnNMWHFAfqjG9npJ_R_OlO7GtVj5aWvtbLcC-RYyLfWIG5XJ6jPxE
Like others have said, there is far more danger in caring for a baby or falling asleep with the baby while drunk.
I am not one to mom shame, and don’t care if she wants to have some wine. However, propping the bottle up is dangerous. It looks like it was just for a second for a funny pic, but I wish she could add a disclaimer that it’s unsafe and a great way to get your kid to aspirate milk into their lungs.
This. And I know she’s doing it like that to be funny, but you seriously can’t wait the 10-15 minutes it takes to feed the baby to drink? It’s that dire for you? I just find the whole pic stupid.
100% this!
The primary issue with drinking while breastfeeding is potentially falling asleep while feeding and the baby getting hurt, not alcohol getting to the baby in the milk (obviously I’m referring to having a drink or two, not to getting hammered).
People can use alcohol testing strips if they want to be particularly careful, but most providers will tell you that a glass of wine is not going to pass on any significant level of alcohol to your baby through your milk.
Yes, exactly. I met with a LC who recommended drinking a beer to help with milk production (she said Guiness or another dark beer would be best.) You have to drink a LOT of alcohol for it to get into your milk. A glass of wine is fine. The bigger risks like you said are falling asleep, or getting drunk (after my first kid, I could only have like 2 oz of beer because my tolerance was so low after not drinking for 9 months. Or it would take me like 2 hours to drink a beer, lol. so I didn’t.)
I read an article once that stated that scientific studies show that your breastmilk will reflect your blood alcohol level. Let’s say you have a blood alcohol level of 0.8. For the baby, that’s about the same level of alcohol as one would normally receive in a glass of orange juice (fruit juices have natural occurring levels of alcohol). The bigger issue is the danger of having a drunk mother trying to care for a baby.
I didn’t simply because if I’m going to abstain from non well-done meat (or deli meats, or hot dogs, etc) while pregnant for a potential small risk why would I not do the same while nursing for a small potential risk as well. You have to follow your comfort level.
Also my tolerance dropped to minimal before I got pregnant, I can’t imagine what it would be like post with no sleep. So no drinks for me since February 2017 (pregnant, nursing, now pregnant again) when I start to drink in 2019/2020 I’m going to be a mess.
I drank one time in the short 6 weeks that I breastfed. I knew I was going to drink, so I pumped enough milk for at least 12 hours of feeding plus some extra to make sure that I could flush my body out before I started pumping/feeding again.
Nothing bad ever happened to my son. Heaven forbid an adult act like an adult.
Jack Newman, the world’s leading breastfeeding expert says that you don’t need to worry about alcohol getting into your breastmilk. The real safety concern would be taking care of an infant while drunk, although a single glass of wine shouldn’t be an issue for most women.
Also: Hecate’s comments on Mommy Wine Culture are 100% spot on.
Do your thang, Snook!
I find her extremely endearing. She’s very real, she adores her kids, she stirs the pot when she wants to, she is successful and seems very happy.
As far as drinking while breastfeeding… people need to calm the eff down. Many moms have a glass of wine or a beer while breastfeeding. In fact my lactation consultant told me that the best time to have a glass of wine, should I be wanting one, is WHILE nursing my baby: relaxation helps milk flow, and the alcohol would work it’s way through the blood (and therefore the milk) and back out again before the next feeding.
We’ve got moms in this world smoking weed while breastfeeding (the effects of which are unknown so I stayed away from it, even though it’s a very regular part of my life, while pregnant and breastfeeding). We’ve got moms giving birth to babies addicted to opiates. We’ve got moms raising babies while actively using all kinds of drugs. We’ve got abusive, neglectful parents all over the damn place. Snook ain’t the problem. Her children appear to be her life, and their care is her constant concern (I’ve followed her for years). I wish mommywars people would direct this energy elsewhere, like the huge issue of babies born on opiates.
Why are the opinions of non-moms and moms who have been a mom for 2.5 seconds always the loudest?
Just came to say-if you can drive, you can nurse. You don’t ever need to pump and dump unless you are completely wasted right at eating time (so, yeah, very doubtful she ever smelled alcohol in her milk). The greatest risk a nursing baby faces with a parent who has had a drink is that said parent will fall while holding the baby.
There’s no need to abstain from alcohol while breastfeeding. The biggest threat to your baby if you are drinking is that you might drop them…. so don’t walk around drunk holding a newborn?
Your breastmilk alcohol levels will be the same as your blood alcohol levels, meaning that even if you are fall down, black out, drunk there will be less alcohol than a non-alcoholic beer in there.
There’s a huge push on to destigmatize drinking and breastfeeding as it’s become a large barrier to women choosing to breastfeed.
It’s fine.
I don’t judge her for this, but I do judge the fact that she clearly has a drinking problem. Girl can’t put the bottle down to save her life.
I have a friend who can literally pump three bottles full from each boob in one sitting. She is like an insane milk producer. She has pumping marathons where she stocks up and then allows herself to drink and then pump and dump. Also…beer is good for milk production!