# Can a breastfeeding mother really be arrested for drinking alcohol is a restaurant? Apparently so **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 29, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092 "2013-11-29T19:51:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/1 "2013-11-29T19:51:14Z")
[Re this story “Woman Fired After Calling Cops on Mom Drinking and Breastfeeding”](Woman Fired After Calling Cops on Mom Drinking and Breastfeeding) the mother was arrested for “endangering the welfare of a minor”. I wonder if that charge is going to stick. > [@](#): > > A server at Gusano’s Pizzeria in Conway, Ark. says she was fired after calling the police on a woman drinking alcohol and breastfeeding her child at the same time. She’s now demanding answers from her former employer. > > Jackie Conners said she watched Tasha Adams, 28, consume “drink after drink” last Wednesday and finally called the police. Conners told KARK 4, “Me being a mom, and just seeing something like that and seeing a baby that can’t speak for itself having a parent do something like that is just unacceptable.” > > Adams was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a minor and the 7-month-old child was released to family members. According to the Daily Mail, Adams believes the incident was “blown out of proportion” and wants people to know she’s “really a normal person.” > > Several days after the incident, Conners says she was fired for “taking the situation into her own hands.” However, a manager at Gusano’s said the call to police was “not the reason” she lost her job. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/2 "2013-11-29T20:04:29Z")
[This article](http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/breast-feeding-and-alcohol/AN02131) (Mayo Clinic) says that alcohol is present in the same concentrations in both blood and breast milk. > [@](#): > > When you drink alcohol, it passes into your breast milk at concentrations similar to those found in your bloodstream. Although a breast-fed baby is exposed to just a fraction of the alcohol his or her mother drinks, a newborn eliminates alcohol from his or her body at only half the rate of an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/3 "2013-11-29T20:13:33Z")
They couldn’t just cut her off? :dubious: And shouldn’t the server be in trouble too? I mean, if they can get in trouble for over serving someone and then letting them drive home, it only stands to reason that the server should be charged in this incident too. (Not that I agree with it. Just saying…) ---
**Author:** ![AndyMatts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@AndyMatts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyMatts)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/4 "2013-11-29T20:59:59Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > [This article](http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/breast-feeding-and-alcohol/AN02131) (Mayo Clinic) says that alcohol is present in the same concentrations in both blood and breast milk. Since the baby is ingesting it orally, it’s not the same as when blood is shared in utero. It’s like giving a baby something with less alcohol than NA beer, or what naturally occurs in fruit juice, which is deemed acceptable for children that age. If mom is drunk, 0.1% alcohol, or 1/50th the concentration of a Budweiser. ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/5 "2013-11-29T22:41:07Z")
Was this drinking downing a row of 15 shots or a couple glasses of wine with dinner? The first is hell no and the second is MYOFB. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/6 "2013-11-29T23:15:58Z")
> [@AndyMatts](#): > > Since the baby is ingesting it orally, it’s not the same as when blood is shared in utero. > > It’s like giving a baby something with less alcohol than NA beer, or what naturally occurs in fruit juice, which is deemed acceptable for children that age. > > If mom is drunk, 0.1% alcohol, or 1/50th the concentration of a Budweiser. This. Drinking something the equivalent of stinking-ass-drunk blood is not going to get anyone drunk, much less to dangerous levels. 15 shots, even, won’t get her milk to dangerous levels for the baby to drink. 15 shots in 1 hour (which is tremendously, frat-party level fast) in a 150 pound woman would produce a BAC somewhere around 0.437%, according to this [BAC calculator](http://bloodalcoholcalculator.org/#LinkURL). That’s [less than O’Doul’s](http://beeradvocate.com/beer/style/5). Absolutely ridiculous unless, as is very often the case, there’s far more to the story than the initial headlines suggest. Such as: was she drunk and carrying the baby around while staggering and refused to let anyone else safely hold the baby? That I could see calling someone about. I can’t get the link in the OP to link to anything, but I assume [this is the story we’re talking about](http://gawker.com/woman-fired-after-calling-cops-on-mom-drinking-and-bre-1473591933), if you can call it an actual story. Nothing much there. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/7 "2013-11-29T23:29:27Z")
Well I think we can glean a few things from the story. Apparently the manager and other employees were happy to continue serving the mother drinks, and sacked the server for calling the police. So at the moment I’m calling “server with stick up her butt who went way over the top for no good reason”, in the absence of further evidence. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/8 "2013-11-30T04:45:52Z")
A drink of beer or a glass of wine can actually help with breastfeeding; it relaxes the mother and the milk “lets down” easier. IANAD, just read that decades ago somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/9 "2013-11-30T05:47:04Z")
It seems to me that it would take a while for the alcohol to get into the milk (what little of it does). Like if I’m drinking a glass of wine and breastfeeding at the same moment. The milk the baby is getting doesn’t have any alcohol in. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/10 "2013-11-30T07:20:29Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > A drink of beer or a glass of wine can actually help with breastfeeding; it relaxes the mother and the milk “lets down” easier. IANAD, just read that decades ago somewhere. IANAD either, but that was my experience when I was breastfeeding. Just a little bit of beer would help let the milk down…especially when I was tense because of cracked nipples. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/11 "2013-11-30T16:17:33Z")
It’s not like there’s a direct line from her mouth to her boobs. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/12 "2013-11-30T16:32:38Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > A drink of beer or a glass of wine can actually help with breastfeeding; it relaxes the mother and the milk “lets down” easier. IANAD, just read that decades ago somewhere. No, you’re thinking of conception. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/13 "2013-11-30T17:14:48Z")
So the breastfeeding women who are all obsessed with doing “pump and dump” if they have a drink or two are even sillier than I thought. I had no idea the amount passed through breastmilk was \*that \*low. Unfortunately, this info has reached me 13 years too late (not really…I didn’t drink back then anyway). ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-breastfeeding-mother-really-be-arrested-for-drinking-alcohol-is-a-restaurant-apparently-so/675092/14 "2013-11-30T18:41:19Z")
Pumping and dumping is completely unnecessary, as alcohol is metabolized out of breast milk in the same manner as blood. So they only time you’d have to do it is of you are uncomfortably full before you are good to nurse again.