Gives whole new meaning to the term "JUG of wine"

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0428091badmom1.html

Mother Faces BWI Charge
Cops: Intoxicated North Dakota woman caught breast-feeding infant
APRIL 28--Meet Stacey Anvarinia. The North Dakota woman, 26, is facing a child neglect charge for allegedly breast-feeding while drunk, according to court records. Anvarinia, a Grand Forks resident, yesterday pleaded not guilty to the criminal count, which stemmed from a police visit to her home in February. While responding to a domestic disturbance call, Grand Forks Police Department officers watched as an "extremely intoxicated" Anvarinia "began breast feeding her infant in front of us," according to an incident report. Since alcohol can pass from mother to child via breast milk, Anvarinia was arrested for neglecting her six-week-old infant (the felony information filed against Anvarinia in District Court can be found here). The baby was transported to Altru Hospital for examination, while Anvarinia was booked into the county lockup, where the below mug shot was snapped. (3 pages)

Tod: You know, Mrs. Buckman, you need a license to buy a dog, to drive a car - hell, you even need a license to catch a fish. But they'll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father.

or mother.

Technically, butt-reaming assholes (or even well mannered butt-reaming gentlemen) are unlikely to become fathers.

They sleep well after you've had a few bevvies, though.....

But what's a busy mother to do?

xoxoxoBruce;561559 wrote:

But what's a busy mother to do?

So this is a case of multi-flasking?

Since alcohol can pass from mother to child via breast milk, Anvarinia was arrested for neglecting her six-week-old infant (the felony information filed against Anvarinia in District Court can be found here)

Silly thing is, if she had neglected to feed the child, she wouldn't be up on this charge.

I wonder what her defense attorney is going to argue.. sounds like it would be a pretty interesting (and difficult) case to defend.

She was too drunk to know what she was doing?

Wow, as much as I hate to say it, I think that either this charge should be thrown out, OR new laws should be made that regulate a legal limit to how much alcohol can be in your bloodstream when you breastfeed. I'm really alarmed at the idea that women could be thrown in jail and have their babies taken away for breastfeeding after a glass of wine or a couple of beers, which really won't do any harm to the baby whatsoever... in fact, you would have to be pretty much alcohol-poisoning-level drunk for there to be enough alcohol in your milk to have an adverse effect on the baby.

I'm not saying it wouldn't be a good idea to create a legal blood alcohol limit for breastfeeding, just that it would be a terrible idea to prosecute a case like this without one.

I doubt the charges will stick. If I were on the jury, I'd probably let her go free. I'd need to see the alcohol content of the baby's blood and of the breast milk before I'd convict. And both would have to be damning. I would be surprised if the cops got either of those.

ZenGum;561772 wrote:

She was too drunk to know what she was doing?

Right...but people can't use that in the case of a DUI (or anything else, for that matter). Why would that be applicable here? Doesn't seem like a jury would buy it, either way.

I don't think this was a case of a glass of wine or a couple of beers, it sounds like she was pretty well sloshed. But I suspect when they took the kid to the hospital, they checked the kid's blood alcohol level.

Of course if she had been smoking a cigarette they probably would have shot her.:rolleyes:

Tiki;561779 wrote:

I'm not saying it wouldn't be a good idea to create a legal blood alcohol limit for breastfeeding, just that it would be a terrible idea to prosecute a case like this without one.

Yeah, I agree... I don't care if the cop thought she was "extremely intoxicated", that's too subjective.

you would have to be pretty much alcohol-poisoning-level drunk for there to be enough alcohol in your milk to have an adverse effect on the baby.

Exactly.
What a shame though... sounds like a terrible situation all around. Probably the only thing worse would be foster care.

The effects of alcohol and how it is cleared in breast milk:

http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/preg/a/aa000801a.htm

If she was drinking brandy, does that mean the baby was drinking white russians?

I want one of those