After alcohol consumption in moderate amounts, breastfeeding can generally be resumed as soon as someone feels neurologically normal.1
Alcohol is not a galactagogue; it may blunt prolactin response to suckling and negatively affects infant motor development. Thus, ingestion of alcoholic beverages should be minimized and limited to an occasional intake but no more than 0.5 g per kg of body weight, which for a 60 kg mother is approximately 2 oz liquor, 8 oz wine, or 2 beers. Nursing should take place 2 hours or longer after drinking to minimize its concentration in the ingested milk.2 Dr. Gideon Koren of the Canadian Motherisk Program provides a table with times from the beginning of drinking until the clearance of alcohol from breastmilk for people of various body weights.3
It is important for the full informed choice process to disclose any alcohol consumption to a recipient family.
Drugs, medication, alcohol, and the decision to discard breastmilk
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- Hale, Thomas. Medications and Mothers’ Milk, 2012 edition. Hale Publishing, 2012: 417-419. ↩︎
- American Academy of Pediatrics. 2022. Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk
↩︎ - Canadian Family Physician. 2002. Drinking alcohol while breastfeeding Will it harm my baby? ↩︎
