The occasional drink is unlikely to harm you or your baby. However, it's safest not to have more than one or two units of alcohol, once or twice a week, if you are breastfeeding.
Alcohol passes through your breastmilk to your baby. Drinking more than two units a day while you are breastfeeding may reduce your milk supply, and even affect your baby's development.
As a rough guide:
- a small (125ml) glass of wine is two units
- a pint of strong lager is three units
- a bottle of alcopop is between one and two units
But this also depends on the strength of the drink, which will be detailed as a percentage on the label. The higher the percentage, the stronger the drink.
How fast alcohol enters your bloodstream, and then your breastmilk, depends on how much you weigh, and whether you have a full or empty stomach. The amount of alcohol in your blood usually peaks between 30 minutes and 90 minutes after you have the drink. You'll need to allow an hour or two for your body to be clear of one unit of alcohol.
So if you want to have an alcoholic drink when you are breastfeeding, feed your baby before having the drink. Two or three hours later, when it's time to feed your baby again, the level of alcohol in your blood should be low enough not to affect your baby.
However, if your baby is newborn, she may need feeding more often than every two hours or three hours. So you may want to stick to soft drinks for the moment.
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