Friday, 26 June 2009
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Mother Pleads Guilty to Drunken Breast Feeding
A 26 year old North Dakota mother recently plead guilty to child neglect for breast feeding her 6 week old while she was intoxicated. You can read the story from msnbc.com here.
"Officers arrested her on felony child neglect after they responded to a domestic disturbance call at her residence. The prosecutors on the case believe this case is the first of its kind to be tried in North Dakota. And the woman faces up to 5 years in prison when she is sentenced in August."
I am absolutely disgusted by this woman. It makes you wonder what she was doing during her pregnancy if she has the audacity to breast feed while drunk. But at the same time I'm a little conflicted. Was there reasonable cause to charge the woman with a felony if it was a first offense? But at the same time I'm so disgusted with this woman that I feel like she should be locked up and never have access to that child again.
So my question is, should the woman have been charged with a felony if this was a first offense? And what is a reasonable punishment for an offense like this?
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- From: neverdie373@xanga
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Comments (22)
Has she done this before since the baby was born?
Was she drinking while she was pregnant?
Was she alone when she was found by the police?
What kind of disturbance caused the police to come in the first place?
*off to find more info…*
give her a warning first if u dun wanna be harsh to her
I've read that only 2% of the alcohol you intake makes its way into the breastmilk. (http://kellymom.com/health/lifestyle/alcohol.html)
If that was the only time she did it, then I don't think it warrants a felony charge. But I think that if she's an alcoholic and breastfeeds, that the baby would, over time, be adversely affected.
IM kind of torn. I do believe she should be charged with a felony... but Im not sure that jail time is really the answer to the problem. I mean honestly if the woman needed a drink that bad then she needs some counciling... and she could have at least have the commen sence to go out and buy a can of formula for the poor child. I know breast milk is best for baby but obviously not if the mother has been drinking. I do believe there should be some form of punishment for her though.
Well, chances are if she hadn't of been caught, she would have done it again and again. Plus, who knows how many times she done it BEFORE she was caught? Chances are if she was breastfeeding while drunk, she most likely was drunk during the pregnancy as well. I think it's pretty horrible that a woman would do that. I don't know about the huge charges, but you know, she was endangering a life. Not just hers but her baby's life.
i think the problem is that when it comes to children we can't afford not to be careful. they come with parents for one basic reason- they need someone to take care of them who's going to make the right decisions that they either don't know how or aren't capable of making themselves. if a mother's going to get drunk and take care of, much less breastfeed, her kid i'm going to bet she's making other irresponsible parenting decisions that add up to neglect also. but the legal system can't run on "maybe"s. tough call.
:)
As a libertarian I don't believe alcohol or drug users should go to jail for using.. though using and breastfeeding, that brings us to a gray area.. she is now exposing her child to the substance.
I think going to jail is harsh. IF they really cared about the well being of the baby they would get help for the Mother and let her continue to care for her baby. This baby has been nursing with her mother for 6 weeks and is now having that taken away from her, that is just truly sad.
AND I think this case needs to be looked at more closely- maybe she did have formula for the time she was drinking, but then ended up so drunk she just naturally started nursing without thinking about it lol. I'm not trying to excuse her behavior, and as another posted this could show she has done other neglectful and possibly harmful things that could affect her baby.
I think we all just would need to know more details before making a judgment.
It's pretty gross that she couldn't stop drinking for her child. Alcohol is way overrated. Ugh.. at first I was thinking it wasn't so bad, but now that I'm typing and really thinking about it... it's really disgusting.
She shouldn't be charged with a felony, especially if it's a first offense.
I don't think jail time is the best answer. I think she should take some kind of class for alcoholics. It might wake her up.
There's no way that kid is a 6 week old.. he looks about the size of my 2 year old nephew, who in size looks about 3!
i think she should get a warning the first time, because maybe she didn't know if she drank, the alcohol would go to the baby.
some people are a little slow.
and i doubt much of it really goes in the breastmilk anyway
@LadyCaitlyn@xanga - I think that's just a generic image, not an image of the actual kid.
I'm conflicted. An occasional drink is fine while breastfeeding, especially if you time it away from a feeding. Getting totally plastered isn't, especially if you're handling the baby while intoxicated. But does this mean every divorcing husband can now rat out his wife for that glass of wine she had on their first post-partum date?
That woman really had me peeved. I know people and have a friend that is pregnant. They're pretty young and at that age where they want to go out and party and get trashed.
It's a little sad, because some of the people I know actually go out and get plastered now that their baby is born. The friend though, has stated on many occassions to her other friends and once or twice to me, that she is going to go get trashed the day after she isn't pregnant anymore. I'm sorry, you have children. You messed up and/or wanted this baby; deal with it or get out. Give the kid to a family that't going to be responsible and worry about the baby not themselves.
I really loose respect with stuff like that.
Depending on the circumstances with the lady, as in, she was drunk/drinking while breast feeding and handling her child; that's neglect. Go ahead and get that felony. She deserves it.
If she wasn't drunk and maybe had a drink or something. I'd let it go.
Give her a warning.
I've heard the same thing that @Amarisa@xanga - pointed out; only 2% of the alcohol makes it into breastmilk - from own OB and a lactation consultant. It was a lapse in judgement for sure, but I don't think that it's worthy of a felony.
I have to wonder if this woman had any idea that what she was doing was harmful to the baby. Do I agree with her getting drunk when she has a 6 week old to take care of , NO. But I have spoken to many mothers in the last couple of years who have been told ridiculously inaccurate things by their physicians. One girl I met was told by her OB that she could drink every day during her pregnancy and not harm the baby as long as she wasn't drinking to the point of intoxication. Another girl I met was told by her OB that she could drink as much as she wanted and still breast feed her baby as long as it was at least 30 minutes after she had her last drink.
I don't think she should be convicted of a felony unless there was hard core evidence that she intentionally got drunk and breastfed her baby to cause the baby harm.
Only 2% of the alcohol may make it to the baby, but because they are so much smaller it takes only a fraction of the amount you drink to have the same effect. Also, babies livers aren't as efficient as an adult's so the smaller amount lasts longer and continues to effect their system. If you want to drink you need to pump the contaminated milk before breastfeeding.
That woman should be charged, but the penalty should not be jail. More like parenting classes and a probation period. If she continues to be criminally negligent, then jail is appropriate.
You are getting people enraged over something they don't know enough about from the information you provided to have an opinion about and there's an epedemic of that in our country now. There is such a movement to take children away from parents. It really is a move towards Socialism to have the solution to any parental misstep be to take the children away and stick the parent in prison. I'm really really concerned about this trend.
This is blogging at it's worst!!!
Not enough information but lets all get enraged anyway!!!
Bad idea.
I kind of agree with sloggy. I want to do more but honestly I don't feel it's worth all the internet 'research'.
Think about all the poor babies who are starving of hunger and who live in war torn communities who may really have need for us to be outraged.
For the child in question I think it may be worse for the child to have its mama taken away for that long. Give parenting classes, probation, community service, something else. Oh, how about mercy it's not easy taking care of a wee baby, maybe this poor mom just needs a friend. But yep we don't know too much about her or her situation so all we can do is speculate.
my question is: Is she a first time mom? Did she honestly know that if she was drunk she could pass that to the baby?
Need more info please?
I would like to know how much she drank also. I have drank and breastfed before. A very small percent of alcohol gets in to breast milk. A few drinks is fine. I am also a nurse and not an alcoholic. I breastfeed and do not give my babies any formula. What about women who smoke cigarettes and breast feed? Those babies become dependent on nicotine and when they wean they go through nicotine withdrawal.