I tell parents that the rules for breastfeeding and driving are the same when it comes to alcohol. If you are too drunk to drive, you are too drunk to breastfeed and you are too drunk to look after your baby, so make sure someone else who is sober can. But most moms just want to know if they can have a glass of wine with dinner, or a beer on a hot summers day. 

Everyone has their own limit, mine is 1 glass, my girlfriends' is 2, other people may be able to tolerate more, others even less. Everyone has a feel for their own limit, and contrary to what public health messaging thinks, generally parents aren't out to harm their baby, they just want to make informed decisions about what is best for their lives. 

So, to quote from the Drunk driving campaign, "Know your limit, and stick within it" 

I also like to remind parents that in Shakespearean England everyone drank mead, a weak beer, because the water was not safe to drink, and this is the generation that gave us Shakespeare. To steal from the Radiology department, "the devil is in the dose" and "everything is a poison in a large enough dose, even water" Sometimes I think we are so caught up in the rules of don't that we forget to live. Public health messaging seems to have become this whole list of don'ts here in North America, what happened to freedom of choice to make the best decision for your baby, your self, and your family? 

And lastly, why not just share the articles that have been posted on Lactnet with the families? Why do you have to tell them anything, why not give them information so they can decide for themselves?

Sonya
Who believes informed decision making is someone making a decision after they have the information, not that someone gets informed of the decision health care providers have made for them. 

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