From our friends at Parents Ask
For many women, breastfeeding is very challenging. Often times it can be painful, exhausting, and even feel unrewarding. For women who have a baby that doesn’t latch on or a milk flow that’s slow, it can be incredibly frustrating. Add those issues the fact that you still have to watch what you eat and DRINK, and you might have one very unhappy mommy…
I can remember bringing my son home and seriously thinking that I would rather relive 24 hours of labor (and 45 minutes of pushing with a very light epidural—that I waited until 7cm to get, I might add), than endure the unbelievable pain and frustration that breastfeeding brought on. No matter how much I pulled, prodded, and squeezed my once attractive chest, getting my son to latch on properly was nearly impossible. But, because of my already forming mommy guilt, I was determined to give my son “the best start….” which resulted in spending, I would estimate, thousands on breastfeeding essentials and consultations with lactation experts.
Add my frustrations and my nervousness about how much he was or wasn’t getting to the fact that I had to think STILL about what I was eating and drinking, and voila: I was “over it” new mom.
“Have a glass of wine,” friends would say. “Just pump and dump.”
Pump and dump. Use my $400 pump to get 5 ounces of liquid gold out of my used and abused breast, and dump it??? Are you crazy???
Obviously, I had no intention of getting sloshed and subsequently getting my 8 week old hammered, but get rid of perfectly good milk? (Which, by the way, despite my hardship, let it be known—a milk shortage was never the issue) No way.
Well, my confession: I never dumped. Ever. Okay, that’s not true. I did. ONE TIME. But, ooooooooooonly because I had to pump in a nasty public bathroom at this party and I was mostly just worried about the germs from the stall. (I know).
We all know the studies about how alcohol affects breastfeeding and though we’d never actually intentionally inebriate our young ones, I have a feeling that there are moms out there, like me, that didn’t, or wouldn’t dump after a glass or two of wine.
We turned to our Parents Ask twitter community to ask them: Moms, do you “pump and dump?” aka, dump your breastmilk every time you drink?
Click here to see what moms had to say!
“Well, my confession: I never have. Ever. Okay, that’s not true. I did. ONE TIME.”
