Nicole Richie just posted a throwback Instagram photo of her breastfeeding days, giving a shoutout to multi-tasking mums for Mother’s Day.
The difference? She’s using a breast pump with a wine in hand. Of course, this quickly sparked a heated debate.
The actress captioned the photo, “To the multitasking mums out there making it all work #HappyMothersDay!”
Immediately, people started commenting on the photo, saying, “Drinking wine while pumping? hmm” and, “Drinking wine whilst breastfeeding ??? not the best thought out pic I’ve ever seen!!!”
Others were quick to say that though Nicole is having a glass of wine, the alcohol won’t have reached her milk yet – something that has long been debated.
“Very little alcohol is passed into breast milk. If she was pumping while drinking it, it wouldn’t even have time to reach the milk, anyway. Research shows this. So Judgy. Let the woman enjoy a glass of wine! Besides, who’s to say she wasn’t ‘pumping and dumping,'” one person wrote.
So, what’s the deal? can you drink while breastfeeding?
The Australian Breastfeeding Society says that it’s totally fine to have a glass or two of wine (side note: yay!).
The key to this is timing.
“Alcohol will be in your breastmilk 30–60 minutes after you start drinking,” the website states. “As a general rule, it takes 2 hours for an average woman to get rid of the alcohol from 1 standard alcoholic drink and therefore 4 hours for 2 drinks and so on.”
It also notes that “alcohol is not ‘stored’ in the milk in your breasts, just as it doesn’t remain in your blood. Once the alcohol is out of your blood, it will be out of your breastmilk.”
They suggest downloading the Feed Safe app which will monitor times and ensure it’s safe for you to have a drink or two.
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