This story was originally published by PGN.
With the stress of early parenting, having a drink or using marijuana might sound tempting, but are they safe for your baby? What about if you are breastfeeding?
You may have also heard myths that drinking can be good for breast milk production.
Here’s what you need to know about the effects of alcohol, marijuana, and other medications if you are breastfeeding.
Does alcohol enter breast milk?
Yes. When you drink alcohol, it travels to your stomach and small intestine. From there, it enters your bloodstream. The amount of alcohol present in your breast milk will be about the same as the amount of alcohol in your bloodstream until your body eliminates it.
“If your blood alcohol content is 0.10%, your breast milk will be the same level,” said Dr. Kathryn Newton, an obstetrician-gynecologist, in a 2024 Cleveland Clinic article. “So, as your blood alcohol content drops, your breast milk alcohol content drops, too.”
Alcohol can be present in breast milk for two to three hours after having one drink. If you have more than one drink, alcohol will be present in your breast milk for longer.
Other factors that can change the amount of time alcohol can be detected in breast milk include:
- How fast you drank
- Whether you drank with a meal
- Your weight
- How fast your body breaks down alcohol
Is it safe to drink alcohol when breastfeeding?
Avoiding alcohol if you are breastfeeding is the safest option. However, having one standard drink per day is not known to harm infants’ health.
A standard drink is determined by its size and its alcohol content by volume (ABV), which describes how much alcohol is in the beverage. In the U.S., a standard drink contains 0.6 ounces of pure alcohol. This is equivalent to 12 ounces of beer with 5 percent ABV, 5 ounces of wine with 12 percent ABV, or 1.5 ounces (one shot) of liquor with 40 percent ABV.
“Having one 12-ounce glass of 9% ABV beer is actually like having two drinks, not one,” Newton said. “This is important to consider when you’re counting the hours until you can nurse again.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that parents who consume one standard alcoholic beverage wait at least two hours before breastfeeding to decrease the risk of alcohol being present in breast milk.
If you need to express or pump your breast milk within two hours of drinking alcohol, discard the milk, or “pump and dump.”
How does excessive alcohol consumption impact the baby if you are breastfeeding?
Consuming more than one alcoholic drink per day while breastfeeding is not recommended and can be harmful to infants’ growth and sleep patterns.
If you’re worried about your alcohol consumption, use the CDC’s “Check Your Drinking” tool and make a plan to drink less. You can find treatment, support groups, and other resources for alcohol use disorder by calling the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Helpline.
Find more resources about drinking and pregnancy from the CDC.
Can drinking beer help you produce more breast milk?
Despite myths, there’s no evidence that barley and hops—two ingredients in beer—can boost your breast milk supply. In fact, research has shown that alcohol consumption decreases breast milk production.
The best way to ensure that you’re producing adequate breast milk is to breastfeed often, especially in the first few weeks after birth. If you’re not always able to breastfeed, express or pump your breast milk as often as your baby typically eats.
If you’re worried you’re not producing enough breast milk, talk to your health care provider.
Is it safe to breastfeed if I take medication?
Most medications are safe to take while breastfeeding.
“The amount of medication that actually gets in the breast milk, for most medications, is usually so little,” said Dr. Heidi Szugye, medical director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Breastfeeding Medicine Clinic and Section, in a 2023 Cleveland Clinic article. “Some of it is even broken up by the acidic contents of the stomach and the baby so that often, by the time it reaches the baby’s bloodstream, it’s so minimal.”
However, premature babies, newborns, and babies with certain health problems may be at increased risk of health problems from traces of medication in breast milk.
Talk to your health care provider about any medications you take to determine if it’s safe to continue taking them if you are breastfeeding.
Is it safe to use marijuana if I’m breastfeeding?
Both the CDC and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend that pregnant and breastfeeding people do not use marijuana.
“We don’t have evidence that good things happen, but there is evidence that bad things happen,” said Dr. Lauren Jansson, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in a 2019 Women’s Health article.
Some research links marijuana use to poor fetal development and pregnancy complications, as well as challenges with attention, memory, problem-solving, and behavior in children who were exposed to it during pregnancy.
For more information, talk to your health care provider.
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