Strange

Don't Breastfeed Your Baby While Drunk

by Barbara McPherson | June 24, 2009 at 09:34 am

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North Dakota authorities have prosecuted a young woman, Stacey Anvarinia, for breastfeeding her baby while drunk. They charged her with child neglect and she faces up to five years in prison. She pleaded guilty to the charge.

Twenty-six-year-old Stacey Anvarinia could face up to five years in prison when she’s sentenced on the felony charge in August.

This is an outrageous interference in the private life of this woman. This is a blatant attempt to deny individual rights to women in the guise of protecting a child. The woman was drunk, her judgement was impaired, she made a simple mistake. Was she supposed to let the baby go hungry? Is there now a law in N. Dakota that says new moms are forbidden to drink alcohol? Did this woman know that alcohol can be passed along in the milk?
Was Stacey Anvarinia deliberately setting out to harm her baby when she breast fed it? If she deserves a jail sentence for making a stupid mistake, then every human on this planet needs to be incarcerated.

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Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 09:48 on June 24th, 2009

I had a vet give penicillin to a mare with a two day old foal once. The foal stopped feeding. Eventually I had to suck it in with a sugar nipple and a home made formula. I ended up feeding that foal every two hours until it eventually went back to feed off the mare.

My point is, if a veterinarian doesn.t know that substances, medication, booze etc enters the milk, how can you expect a young woman to know.

Unfortunately the link doesn.t tell the whole story. It would be nice to know the complete background and the extent of intoxication by the mother. She did plead guilty, I would think on the advice of her lawyer.

Barbara McPherson

at 10:14 on June 24th, 2009

Thanks for the comments. Fortunately, I didn't smoke when I was pregnant and we were too poor to drink alcohol, but no one warned us about the effects on the fetus. Certainly there was no talk about passing on meds or anything else in mothers' milk. It's only been in the past few years that the real impact of nicotine on children, both born and unborn, has been documented. This just smacks of persecution of the ignorant and/or poor. No one seriously thinks that a wealthy matron who indulges in a gin and tonic before feeding her baby would face five years in prison.

Roy C

at 10:18 on June 24th, 2009

This should not be treated criminally, not at this point. Agree with both of you.

Roy C

at 10:34 on June 24th, 2009

The husband of Loretta Lynn, the famous country western singer, "Coal Miner's Daughter", was raised sucking on a cloth with alcohol on it to put him to sleep.

No wonder his eventual extreme addiction to alcohol.

I offer the example of what attitudes about alcohol might only be one or two generations behind her. She herself may have been breastfed by an intoxicated mother.