Yes, I agree with Nikki the problem is not breastfeeding oer se; it is alcohol and parenting.  She brings up the very important point that we do have clearcut research that shows bed sharing is dangerous when parents have too much to drink.  It is an opportunity to redirect the focus away from breastfeeding and towards better parenting overall.

I think the opening of the question about alcohol is a good time to steer the conversation towards how overdoing alcohol affects the parenting.  My parents generation drank.  It was the era of drinking during pregnancy, a glass of wine AND cocktails in the evening.  Parties where the kids were left to fend for themselves in a big group and the parents drank in a big group.  For the most part that worked well.  But I can think of many incidents during my childhood when bad things did happen.  My sister can now joke about the time at the pool when all the moms had their afternoon drinks and were paying no attention whatsoever to their children in the pool.  My sister's "floaties" fell off and she went down for the third time.  Another CHILD rescued her.  

So, I look upon "breastfeeding" as a slight opening in the door to gently discuss a few life style changes when parents seem receptive. For instance, dietary changes to improve vitamin D and calcium intake and including weight bearing exercise (which often happens if the baby is actually held instead of swaddled and ignored).  Many mothers worry about bone density.  We know from the research that formula feeding puts you at higher risk of the effect of bone density loss because mothers miss the rebounding they do after breastfeeding.  So, while there is no research to support that vitamin D and calcium prevent the bone density loss during breastfeeding -- it is a good opportunity to encourage mothers to start thinking about weight bearing exercise and dietary changes for the LONG haul even if it is not pertinent to breastfeeding.

Ditto for alcohol.

Best regards, Susan Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC

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