Alcohol’s Effect on Lactation - Publications amp;amp; Multimedia.pdfVIP

Alcohol’s Effect on Lactation Julie Mennella, Ph.D. Although pregnant women are discouraged from drinking alcohol because of alcohol’s detrimental effect on fetal development, the lore of many cultures encourages lactating women to drink alcohol to optimize breast milk production and infant nutrition. In contrast to this folklore, however, studies demonstrate that maternal alcohol consumption may slightly reduce milk production. Furthermore, some of the alcohol consumed by a lactating woman is transferred to her milk and thus consumed by the infant. This alcohol consumption may adversely affect the infant’s sleep and gross motor development and influence early learning about alcohol. Based on this science, it would seem that the recommendation for a nursing mother to drink a glass of beer or wine shortly before nursing may actually be counterproductive. KEY WORDS: lactation; physiological AODE (alcohol or other drug effects); breast milk; pregnancy hormones; infant; sleep disorder; developmental delay; motor coordination; alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder; learning hroughout most of human evo­ major U.S. brewery produced Malt heavy drinking, the “regular” drinking lution, infants for several years Nutrine, a low-alcoholic beer composed patterns at 1 and 3 months after giving Tafter birth received their nutrients of barley malt and hops. This product birth (i.e., postpartum) did not differ primarily from their mothers in the form was sold exclusively in drugstores and significantly between women who elected of breast milk. Breast milk is a complex prescribed by physicians as a tonic for to breastfeed and women who never fluid produced by the mother’s body