Having a Beer to Nurse
About a quarter of nursing moms today are told by one of their health professionals to have a glass of beer or wine to help them with nursing, echoing the nursing folklore that has been around for centuries. The popular wisdom suggests that the alcohol will help the mom relax, thus increasing milk production and enhancing milk let-down. Not so! . according to a brilliant study by Julie Mennella, Yanina Pepino, and Karen Teff published in the April 2005 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. When science and folklore appear to collide, they often both contain pieces of a larger truth. Putting it all together, what do we now know about alcohol and nursing? The everyday magic of milk production and let-down arise from the marvelously coordinated choreography of nursing hormones. Oxytocin and prolactin are the stars of the show. How do they perform with a drink?
In the current study, healthy nursing women arrived at a research center of the University of Pennsylvania and had an IV placed in their arms to measure blood levels. They were given 45 minutes to relax after this, in case the needle stick had affected their hormones. No babies were present, because the sight, sound, or smell of a baby can change milk production. The women were not even allowed to watch television, or talk or read about food or babies, because these things might change hormone levels. Mothers were then given either orange juice with about the same amount of alcohol as in a glass or two of wine, or plain orange juice (disguised with about half a tsp of alcohol on the surface, to trick them with flavor and smell). Electric breast pumps were used to get milk samples. On the next test day, the procedure was repeated with each mother getting the beverage she did not get the day before. The results were dramatic!
Oxytocin levels for each woman fell a striking 78 percent during the session where she had the alcohol. The women also reported feeling more tired and less happy on those days. Prolactin levels, on the other hand, surged by 336 percent during the alcohol session. The two hormones that normally move together in the nursing dance, went spinning in opposite directions after a drink. The result? Women produced less milk (volume and calories). But high prolactin levels lead to an increased sensation of breast fullness, so mothers feel like they are making more milk even though they are making less. Babies suck more vigorously at the beginning of nursing after their mother has had a drink, leading many mothers to think that babies are drinking more. Probably they are sucking harder because they are getting less. Breastfed babies drink an average of 20 percent less milk after their mother has had alcohol.
A glass of alcohol does make mom sleepier and make her breasts feel fuller. This could be the explanation for the generations of folk wisdom. Because moms couldn’t measure how much milk their babies were drinking, there was nothing to contradict this advice.
What about alcohol.s effect on the baby? The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that light alcohol consumption is compatible with breastfeeding. The short-term risks appear to be negligible. But we don.t yet know if there are long-term effects from imprinting the baby with a fondness for alcohol. We do know that heavier alcohol use by a nursing mother (2 or more drinks a day) can have a negative impact on the baby.s development, unless the drinking is timed carefully.
If you have one glass of beer or wine after nursing, the alcohol that would go into your milk will likely have done so within 2 or 3 hours. If you pump and discard after that, your baby should not be exposed even if you have a drink.
I.ve written more about how the things a nursing mom eats or drinks affect her milk and her baby in From First Kicks to First Steps (McGraw-Hill 2004). Is chocolate okay? How about coffee? Yes! . in the right amounts and at the right times. What you eat and drink can be a wonderful experience for you and your baby to share!
Alan Greene MD FAAP
| April 8th, 2005 at 5:07 pm
Dr. Greene,
Very interesting article. Most of the young mothers that I know are very concerned about issues like this and I am going to pass this one on to Tracy to share with some of her friends. Just to know that an occasional special event where they could have one glass of wine and then pump in a couple of hours might really give them something to celebrate !!! ha
Glad that I don’t have to worry about when I can have a glass of wine !!!!! After visiting Mother is always a GOOD time !! ha
Talk to you later. Take care. Thanks for being so supportive of Cheryl and the family as we struggle through this time.
Glynna
| April 13th, 2005 at 6:34 am
I sent a link to the article to a nursing moms message board I read and they were very appreciative of the information. One said her own mother had been given this advice and had to wean after a few months because she wasn’t producing enough milk. Now the reason she wasn’t making enough milk makes sense!
| January 14th, 2006 at 1:01 am
I found this article very helpful. I have been nursing for 9 1/2 months. I wasn’t producing enough milk and I was told by a physician to drink 1 beer a day that would help in my milk production. So I have been drinking a beer after 1 of my feedings, and now when I pump I might get 2 oz out of both breast. Before I was getting 3-4 oz out of both breast. I’m not quite ready to stop breastfeeding but I’m running out of milk. Any suggestions?? My goal is to breast feed for the full 1st year of her life. I feel guilty for stopping now.
| March 20th, 2006 at 3:58 am
My main objection with this article is that it doesn’t address the folklore exactly. Folklore states that a dark beer, stoudt, that has not been pasteurized, will help increase breast milk production. The reason being the ingredients in the stoudt beer and lack of heat from pasteuization stimulate increase. Alcohol in general will decrease milk supply, and I’m not disagreeing with that point. My wife and I have 3 children, and have been to at least 5 different lactation consultants as well as a research center for a prescription to increase breast milk, all without success. My grandmother and her great aunt told us the folklore, and with baby 3 milk production has been sufficient (only thing he needs). My wife only drinks 4 oz with a meal and the results are incredible. When she does not have the beer, no leaking occurs and more frequent feedings with the baby being “hungry”. My main point is that when a research article is written it should be investigated thoroughly. There are many different ways that information can be “massaged”.
George
| September 11th, 2006 at 7:18 am
I have always heard that having a drink will help relax the mother the nurse the baby. I am pregnant with my 4th child and if I had any problems I was going to try having a beer first. Thank you for this artical. I will no longer try this option. I do not know to much about breast feeding so I was researching a bit. When I came across this I was shocked. Thanks again!!!!
| September 19th, 2006 at 8:25 am
You suggest pumping after drinking, but I’ve also read findings that “pump and dump” is neither useful nor necessary, as the blood alcohol level in mom, and therefore the alcohol level in the milk, reduces over time as the drink wears off.
Obviously, one wouldn’t want to be tipsy or worse when nursing, but to have a drink after nursing, in the 3-4 hours before nursing, do you still suggest expressing?
Thanks for the forum. Very interesting!
| August 27th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I have noticed that any time I have any kind of beer that I definately produce more milk!!! I actually get very engorged after about 2 beers and maybe an hour after I have had them.
| December 27th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Interesting article, although I do question the research method. Everyone who has taken Psych 101 knows that when someone is told to NOT think about something, then they WILL think about it. The article doesn’t go into detail with how they were able to successfully convince these mothers to not think about their precious babies. I would be more bummed on the 2nd day of a test where I’m pricked with a needle and told to not think about my little one too!
I will do what a previous poster suggested and try the unpasteurized dark beer, so thanks for that!
| January 11th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Beer is good for the mother due to the natural yeast, grains and vitamin B complex it contains. It’s not about the alcohol. It’s about the whole foods within fresh beer.
Consuming alcohol to calm the mother is a ridiculous idea.
| February 9th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Very good to know…
I have heard that for the amount that you will drink that it won’t even effect the milk or the baby.
| April 19th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
The folklore actually states that beer creates more breastmilk, not wine or other alcohols. Testing other forms of alcohol and not beer will not produce the same results.
From experience, after consuming a single beer and going to bed; I woke up after a few hours extremely engorged with breastpads that were full of leaking milk. When my three month old went to drink from my breasts the milk flowed extremely fast that my baby pulled away and was sprayed. This pressure lasted a long time, and my baby had more tham enough milk.
About a week later I had another beer at a gathering and the same thing happened.
My baby has been successfully breastfed since she was born with no difficulties.
I have read many research articles done by Universities about beer and breastmilk, and it is shown that the barley content in the beer is what increases the prolactin. The same results have been seen in non-alcoholic beer.