Is Breastfeeding Maybe, Possibly, Inconclusively Drunk A Crime? No.

Aug 8, 2009, 3:26pm

The news reports say that Stacey Anvarinia, sentenced yesterday, was arrested back in February of this year for breastfeeding her baby while drunk. But Anvarinia's blood alcohol level wasn't tested, breastfeeding with alcohol in one's system is not necessarily a negative for the baby and, oh yeah, it's also not a crime.

The news reports say that Stacey Anvarinia was arrested back in February of this year for breastfeeding her baby while drunk. According to San Francisco Gate’s Mommy Files:

Last February, police in Grand Forks, N.D., were called about a
domestic disturbance at the home of 26-year-old Stacey Anvarinia. When
they arrived, Anvarinia was drunk and slurring her words–and she was
breast-feeding. The officers arrested Anvarinia for neglect of her
six-week-old infant on the grounds that alcohol can pass from mother to
child via breast milk. [emphasis mine] They never determined her blood alcohol level,
but they declared her "extremely intoxicated." The baby was taken to
the hospital for an examination and Anvarinia was locked up on charges
of child neglect.

As a result, yesterday Stacey Anvarinia was sentenced to a 6 month term, at least some of which may be served in a substance-abuse treatment facility.

Let’s review. Despite the fact that Anvarinia’s blood alcohol content was never measured by officers and despite the fact that breastfeeding while drunk is not a crime, this young mother was arrested and booked on charges of child neglect, found guilty and sentenced.

For once I actually agree with Dr. Amy Tuteur, an OB/GYN who was quoted in The Mommy Files from her own blog, The Skeptical OB:

Since when is breastfeeding while drunk a crime? Is it even a danger to
the baby’s health? There is certainly a theoretical risk that a baby
can be harmed by breastfeeding from a chronically intoxicated mother.
Ethanol (alcohol) passes from the mother’s blood stream into her breast
milk. However, it is diluted, and the baby receives only a tiny
fraction of what the mother consumed. There is no scientific evidence
that breastfeeding during a single episode of intoxication is harmful
to the baby in any way.

The officers made a huge assumptive leap here. Not only did they assume Stacey Anvarinia was drunk without actual evidence, they were quite clear that she was arrested because of a perceived risk to a baby of ingesting breastmilk from a woman who’s been drinking. Again, scientific evidence is anything but conclusive on this issue – even if it were a crime.

The American Academy of Pediatriacs Committee on Drugs "considers alcohol compatible with breastfeeding" according to La Leche League. Dr. Jack Newman, author of what many consider the bible on breastfeeding, The Ultimate Guide to Breastfeeding, dispels myths about breastfeeding, one of them being that women cannot drink small amounts of alcohol while nursing.

This is not to say that breastfeeding while drunk, consistently, is appropriate, healthy or cannot be considered neglectful – legally or otherwise. It may very well be all of those things. But arresting a mother, in her own home, for breastfeeding her baby when she appears intoxicated is another sign pointing towards the criminalization of women’s bodies in this society. At what point do we draw the line if we are willing to arrest women for the appearance of being drunk while breastfeeding, even though neither science nor the law believe it to be endangerment worthy of criminalization? Again, Dr. Tuteur gets it right:

This incident is deeply troubling for another reason. It is an attempt
to criminalize mothering if it does not meet entirely arbitrary
standards. Will they be charging mothers who smoke with felony child
neglect, since second hand smoke poses a real, not theoretical, risk to
an infant’s health? Will they be monitoring the dietary intake of women
who breastfeed to make sure that the breast milk contains nutrients in
the recommended amounts and doesn’t contain any non-approved
prescription or over the counter medications?

If officers were concerned because, according to the Grand Forks Herald, they witnessed Anvarinia engage in various displays of what seemed like child endangerment (One of the arresting officers said that, "during the incident, he saw Anvarinia shake
the baby girl, hold her without supporting her head and, at one point,
hold her upside down by one leg"), then why wasn’t CPS called or a file started on Anvarinia? Instead, officers booked her on child neglect based on an idea on which neither science nor the law can back them up.

Breastfeeding with some alcohol in a woman’s system is not only not necessarily a health risk to the baby, it is not – in any way – a criminal act. The only positive to arise from this situation is the potential for Anvarinia to receive treatment for any alcohol abuse problems she may have. That’s a whole lot of vague, though, in return for a situation that reeks of a whole lot of violating of this woman’s rights.

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