Mother Pleads Guilty to Drunken Breastfeeding

[Stuart G]

Source: MSNBC, AP

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - A North Dakota woman accused of breast-feeding her 6-week-old baby while drunk has pleaded guilty to child neglect.

Twenty-six-year-old Stacey Anvarinia could face up to five years in prison when she's sentenced on the felony charge in August.

Judge Sonja Clapp says Anvarinia will not have to register as an offender against children.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31524267/ns/health-womens_health/

---

I guess the cops and the legal system hasn't got much going on in ND..

[texastoast]

1. A beer is good for breastfeeding

Just one.

[MADem]

2. I think someone needs alcohol treatment and parenting classes.

And regular visitation with the kids in foster care while she's getting those things.

How locking her up for five years is going to "help" her is beyond me.

[get the red out]

3. Exactly

The poor woman has a problem so let's punish the hell out of her for it and deprive her children of contact with their Mom.

Very helpful and family friendly. :sarcasm:

[panader0]

4. How did she get caught?

My mom used to say she spiked my pablum.

[MADem]

5. As the link indicated, the police saw her doing it.

Police officers who responded to a domestic disturbance call at Anvarinia's home on April 13 say they saw an intoxicated Anvarinia breast feeding. Health officials say alcohol consumed by breast-feeding mothers can be absorbed into an infant's system.

Attorneys believe it's the first such case prosecuted in North Dakota.

[pattmarty]

10. They failed to mention that the "officers" watched her for 3 hours.

[MADem]

15. That's not what the link says. nt

[pattmarty]

16. Did you ever hear of satire???

[MADem]

19. That just wasn't funny, which is probably why I didn't "get" it. nt

[pattmarty]

24. I have more than a slight distrust/distaste for the police.

[ejpoeta]

12. was that the domestic disturbance?? how did they know she was drunk??

[MADem]

14. I'm guessing the cop or cops used eyes and ears to sort that out, like they do. NT

[panader0]

22. Dial-up sucks hard

It took over a minute to access the link. There are so many things I can't do on my computer- videos, music, much more. That's why I ask questions instead of zooming around.

[MercutioATC]

6. My parents rubbed whiskey on my gums when I was teething.

I'm probably dating myself (I'm 41)...but it WAS a common practice at the time.

[Mari333]

7. my dad did that too

[WriteDown]

8. It was also common to drink and smoke while pregnant...

that was before we knew about things like FAS though :)

[MercutioATC]

11. I'm just sayin'....

We also rode bikes without helmets and ***gasp*** Purell hand sanitizer hadn't even been invented.....and we all pretty much came out ok.

(more a reaction to the replies calling for parenting classes and such than anything else)

[MADem]

17. I think getting drunk while pregnant or breastfeeding is not good.

That exposure to booze can't be good. Getting drunk with children in the home isn't good, either. It sets a poor example.

Having "a" glass of wine or beer is an entirely different thing. In France or Italy, there's not a big OOOOOOOOOOOH if a pregnant woman has "a" glass of wine. But then, you don't see as many staggering drunks in southern Europe, anyway. Go up to UK and you'll see plenty of louts and lasses vomiting in the road around closing time.

[WriteDown]

31. One glass of wine or one beer can cause FAS during...

gestation. It may be done in Europe, but it is not the right thing to do.

[MADem]

32. Well, I don't pretend to be an expert on this topic. All I know is I've seen

very pregnant women having the odd glass of wine.

[WriteDown]

33. My girlfriend is a child counselor....

Trust me, I hear it almost daily. :).

[MADem]

58. My experience seeing this extreme moderation is in southern Europe

A few sips, no guzzling. Always with a meal.

OTOH, I've seen pregnant women in UK and Ireland having a few pops in the pub, too (of course, this was before all the publicity about FAS), along the lines of that "girls night out" scene in the Irish film "The Snapper."

[lolly]

39. Source?

Maybe 1 glass a day, but there is no evidence whatsoever that drinking 1 glass of wine while you are pregnant can cause FAS.

If it did, most of the population over the age of 40 or so would have FAS. And pretty much all of France and Italy.

FAS is a serious problem, but exaggerating the risks like that trivializes the issue.

[WriteDown]

42. Tons of sites and studies, but here is two...

http://www.come-over.to/FAS/ZeroAlcohol.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/FAS/faqs.htm

[krabigirl]

45. These say nothing about having ONE glass during the whole pregnancy. That is hyperbole.

One glass is not "moderate" drinking. You are at the opposite end of the spectrum. koo koo.

[WriteDown]

46. Maybe you missed the part...

where they say that NO AMOUNT of alcohol is safe during pregnancy. Timing has a lot to do with FAS, but its impossible to pinpoint what alcohol will affect at what time in fetal devolopment.

[sandnsea]

51. Which is completely different

than saying one glass of wine can cause FAS. They're saying they don't know what the safe amount is. Don't Know. You said they did know, and they knew that one glass of wine or beer can do it. They don't know that and they never said they did.

[WriteDown]

56. How much alcohol does it take to cause FAS?

?

[sandnsea]

59. Gosh. They Don't Know

It depends on a variety of factors, all of which aren't completely known. It can be a drink a day over the course of several days, it can be a few drinks over the course of several months, it can be a particularly heavy drunken binge. They recommend women don't drink at all because there are too many variables to factor, not because one drink can cause FAS. Well, unless it was one big keg of a drink.

[WriteDown]

61. You are right..

They really have no idea. One thing is for certain though, alcohol does pass through the placenta. No amount of alcohol can be deemed safe.

[sandnsea]

63. I'll go out on a limb and say one beer is safe

Otherwise the entire population would be brain damaged. Again, the reason they recommend women don't drink is because of the accumulation over time, not because one drink can do damage.

[WriteDown]

64. Your statement...

is still at odds with the CDC. It all depends on what is developing at that moment in time. They recommend that women not even drink near-beer like O'Doulls.

[sandnsea]

66. Because Of Accumulation n/t

[nodehopper]

53. THAT my friend

is because there are no studies proving such a negative, because no IRB would approve them, and no one would fund them. It's like automatic labeling "not for children under 3" on all kinds of stuff like toothbrushes--because legally you cannot condone any drinking, because the claim hasn't been tested concretely, yet all the science that has been done on the subject asking different research questions (and extrapolation isn't enough to legally endorse a safe minimum) shows no evidence of one glass of wine ever being able to cause FAS.

[WriteDown]

55. Please feel free to post the science that...

"has been done" then.

[krabigirl]

43. Um, one glass of wine? Please give me the stats on that. ONE glass during an entire pregnancy?

I highly doubt that. We Americans are wayyyyy too puritanical about such things. One glass in nine months is not going to cause FAS.

[WriteDown]

47. Refer to post 42

Check out where the CDC says that NO AMOUNT OF ALCOHOL is safe. They don't just make these things up.

[sandnsea]

48. Oh Bull Shit

I worked in the treatment field for years, as did my husband, and that is just dangerously false. One Drunken Binge ending in a blood alcohol of .28 can cause FAS. But not one glass of wine or a beer. I don't know what self-righteous head trip somebody would have to be on to say such a thing.

[WriteDown]

49. Yep...

You know better than the CDC. Kind of like one line of coke can never hurt a fetus or one pack of cigarettes. :eyes:

[Abacus]

50. Uh, no.

As little as one drink per week is reported to cause observable behavior issues, but FAS is associated with more than one ounce of 100% alcohol per day (~ 16 oz beer) in the most conservative and googleable study I could find; most report 3 to 5 drinks per day before notable FAS risk.

[nodehopper]

52. no, it can't

fearmongering about alcohol doesn't help anything. The closest there is to a peer-reviewed scientific study on the subject says 4 drinks several times a week over a period of months.

[GinaMaria]

54. This isn't about a gestating fetus

Not saying it's a good idea to breastfeed drunk, but FAS is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, this is a month old baby. Seems the information you post should reflect studies on the effects of alcohol transfer to a newborn.

[undeterred]

Thats how we got the chimp.

[undeterred]

27. Thats how we got the chimp.

[mopinko]

34. we were told that the placenta was a barrier

and that only good things got through. :crazy:
and whisky on the gums of teething babies was not the worst of it.

[hunter]

9. I'm guessing breast milk with an alcohol level of 0.2 or less is still better than formula...

Having an alcoholic mom, especially in a situation where the police are called for domestic disturbances, is a much, much bigger problem.

This mom needs help, not prison.

Any damage the kid has suffered from consuming alcohol probably occurred before birth. If the mom is drinking while she's breastfeeding, she was probably drinking when she was pregnant too.

[Downwinder]

18. Sure a lot better than not having a MOM at all.

[Blaze Diem]

21. "This mom needs help, not prison." Reasonable thinking, but..Prisons need inmates in order to PROFIT

Who really cares about the baby or the mom.
What matters are laws that protect profit over people.

The way things are in the New America.

------
Where did I read that Dick Cheney had invested somewhere around $85 million in the US prison system. Then set out to surveill the public until his investment reached 'profit' status.

Our government is so effing corrupt..
This woman needs help with her addiction/illness & prison won't do squat to make her a better human being OR mommy.

Our Government needs detox more than this woman, I believe.

[Arkansas Granny]

13. While I don't advocate breastfeeding while intoxicated, I'm left wondering

what is going on here. They observed that she was intoxicated, but didn't check her blood alcohol level.

------
While the officers did not test Anvarinia's blood-alcohol level, Mattison said, they "did note that she was extremely intoxicated."
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2009/04/29/news/state/183793.txt

------

Here's another opinion on this story by an OB/Gyn. Interesting read.

http://skepticalob.blogspot.com/2009/04/breastfeeding-while-drunk-since-when-is.html

[MADem]

20. She likely reeked of booze and was staggering and slurring her words.

Think that tee vee show "cops." Guy with no shirt, or a "wife beater" tee, missing a few teeth, in need of a haircut, trashed out his ass, combative, meth-thin, with an equally combative, overweight drunken wife. One or both have injuries that include blood and a fresh bruise.

Now add a baby.

That's what went through my mind....

[tomreedtoon]

25. The officers should have tried to certify it, though.

You know that when this comes to court, and it will, there will be no proof other than the officers' testimony that the woman was drunk and breastfeeding. If they had grabbed a Breathalyzer and gotten documented intoxication levels, it would stick better in court.

(Maybe a nasty thought but I can't resist - maybe the mother stopped, held up a breast and said, "Offer you one for the road?")

[MADem]

29. It's already been to court. The woman pled guilty. NT

[JerseygirlCT]

40. Too bad. Without a test, it's hard to see why their word

would have held more weight than hers.

[MADem]

57. Too bad? The actions of the police may have saved the life of the infant.

Odds are good to excellent that the dash cam of the cruisers caught the drunken mother in "full flower."

People generally don't plead guilty if they've got a decent shot at acquittal, either.

I think this woman needs help, and hopefully she'll get it. I do think children have the right to be raised in a safe environment, too, and a drunken mama in a "domestic disturbance" home ain't a good start.

[hugo_from_TN]

65. Perhaps she knew she was guilty and actually had the honesty to say so in court.

There are some people who take responsibility for mistakes instead of trying to game the legal system.

[JerseygirlCT]

67. True. nt

[Kali]

36. so far, I think it would be hard to compel someone to submit to a breatalyzer

IN THEIR OWN HOME. It's a fine line doing it while stopping a driver and a lot of the results get thrown out of court for that. How in the fuck would it be justifiable to even ask. This case is total bull shit. She should have fought it.

[panader0]

26. I've got several of those t-shirts

and I never beat any of my wives. Those poor t-shirts are getting a bad rap.

[MADem]

28. Get drunk, do some meth, lose a few teeth.

You need the "full package" for the shirt to do it's wicked work!

[mopinko]

35. i hate that name but

the only other name i know for them is a dago. (sp?)

[MADem]

60. That's even more un-PC

That term is an insulting way to describe a person of Italian ancestry. I haven't heard that word since, gee, the sixties, I guess. I think it's fallen out of common use.

[Kali]

70. that is because the current immigrants to hate these days are Mexicans

and depending on the inflection just saying "Mexican" is starting to be insulting.

[JerseygirlCT]

38. So, without testing, it's now their word against hers.

I'm thinking this is not a prosecution that will succeed.

Remember those old commercials? She needs to "get herself a good lawyer".

[MADem]

62. No. It's a guilty plea. It's DONE. She admitted that she endangered the kid. NT

[NYC_SKP]

23. Hey. It's not even about breastfeeding. It's about being a drunk mother.

You have a six-week old baby.

If you're a good parent you don't go past two glasses of wine or the equivalent, unless there are other sober adults available (and even then...:wtf:)

End of discussion.

[David__77]

30. There should be classes and education for her first offense.

Not incarceration, fines, or "community service," that will only exacerbate the situation.

[JerseygirlCT]

37. Oh good grief. They don't have anything better to do?

Not that I'm encouraging nursing mothers to drink to excess, but please.

[davsand]

41. Were they drinking cocktails together in the Olive Garden Bar?

:hide:

[BrightKnight]

44. Separating the child from its mother and destroying the mother's

ability to earn a living is asinine. The punishment is far worse than the crime. I really doubt that drunk breast feeding is a huge social problem. Making an example out of this woman is pointless.

The appropriate response would be to refer the case to child protective services and perhaps a misdemeanor charge with mandatory parenting classes and alcohol treatment if necessary.

[dugaresa]

68. next - Woman arrested for eating sauerkraut and then breastfeeding

poor baby suffered with gas for 2 days.

;-)

[damntexdem]

69. NUI: Nursing Under the Influence.

What was the milk alcohol content?

Well, drinking mothers will now learn their lesson: let the baby cry in hunger and you won't get in trouble.