Milkscreen

[steuard]

Waiting for Kim at the Walgreens pharmacy counter, I spotted a product that made me wonder if the store was engaging in some dark humor: Milkscreen: Breast milk alcohol test strips. If you've just had a night out on the town, don't worry! "Now, with milkscreen™, there is one simple and accurate method to let Mom know if her milk contains a level of alcohol that may negatively impact Baby."

When the pharmacist saw me staring at the box in disbelief, she said, "Oh, I know. Everyone looks at those that way." We all agreed that if a mother actually needed them it was good for them to exist, but we all also seemed to be thinking, "Why take the risk in the first place?"

For all you actual moms out there: Are these test strips brilliant, or disturbing?

Comments

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

These test strips are the source of one gigantic eyeroll from me. I think they're a means of extracting cash from nervous new parents, and I think they are marketed in ways intended to make new parents nervous.

Have you noticed how incredibly prudish this culture is about motherhood and alcohol? We demand that women give up all alcohol during pregnancy, because we haven't determined what level of consumption is "safe". By contrast, French doctors recommend red wine to pregnant women - a glass a day - because it's high in iron and it's an anti-convulsant. France does not have higher rates of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome than we do. It appears that a moderate approach is actually reasonable here, but in the US, we don't trust pregnant ladies to be moderate on anything. It's all or nothing, baby. That's why What to Expect When You're Expecting makes out like your baby will die if you have an entire bagel. (SO not kidding there.)

Over the last few years, it has begun to appear that denying women alcohol in pregnancy isn't enough: we have to deny them alcohol while they nurse too. The recommendations regarding alcohol avoidance have gotten more draconian just in the 2.5 years since Danger Lad! was born, but no evidence has been presented (so far as I know) to support the change.

If you are seriously inebriated, by all means hire a babysitter who can cover for you while you sleep it off. Parenting while drunk is not a good idea, which is (IMO) why you should not breastfeed while seriously sozzled. You should be able to determine whether or not you meet this standard without the use of a test strip. Fail a field sobriety test? Don't breastfeed.

If you have had a drink or two (a glass of wine with dinner, say, or a social cocktail with friends, or a slug of Bailey's in your chocolate milk to take the edge off so you can deal with a teethy babe), you are, IMO, fine to breastfeed.

[steuard.livejournal.com]

Once again, my thanks for such an informative reply. Proper diet during pregnancy is one of those things that I am as yet only peripherally aware of (I'm hoping to learn more before too terribly long). All the little snippets I've heard about the topic have only served to make me paranoid and confused: the forbidden foods that I've heard about seem so random! (Perhaps they'd be obvious to a biologist, but they aren't to me.) I know that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is absolutely horrible for something so completely preventable, but of course I know absolutely nothing about how much alcohol is actually safe. (On the other hand, I've never heard of "Infant Alcohol Syndrome" or "Toddler Alcohol Syndrome", so presumably the consequences of alcohol exposure after birth are substantially less dire.) It's good to hear that at least a bit of the paranoia is overstated. (Now we need to figure out which bits those are...)

Does this mean we should avoid What to Expect When You're Expecting? Or should we just be sure to supplement it with other resources? (I'm obviously jumping the gun on asking for advice at this point; forgive me if I ask the same question again when the time comes.)

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

You're benefiting from me being up past my bedtime, basically.

There are so many food avoidance recommendations for pregnant women that it's just about impossible to follow them all and still eat, and if you throw morning sickness into the mix, it doesn't get any easier. Most doctors will suggest a few things to definitely avoid (any vegetable that's currently suspected of spreading food poisoning, fish with high mercury content, chemicals to which you are sensitive), and tell you to make up your own mind on the rest. In my experience, most of the "to avoid" list is related to listeriosis.

I am not a fan of the entire "what to expect" series, but then, I'm not a huge fan of other pregnancy books either. I had a few last time out, hated them all, "leant" them to a friend who I hope doesn't give them back, and do not miss them now.

[zathrus.livejournal.com]

What to Expect gave me nutritional nightmares. I far prefer Dr. Sears's The Pregnancy Book.

As for the Milkscreen idiocy: Alcohol is rare among drugs in that it passes freely back and forth between the mother's blood and her milk. However, this means that her milk will contain the same concentration of alcohol as her blood. Since the legal limit for driving in many communities is around 0.08% -- multiple orders of magnitude lower than the mildest beer -- this should not be a major concern. In the opinion of Dr. Jack Newman, the mother will become too inebriated to be a competent mother long before her milk becomes poisonous to her baby.

Newt

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I largely ignored the pregnancy food paranoia, other than caffeine (which I'd largely cut out already, honestly) and alcohol (which I don't drink very much of regardless). There are parts of pregnancy (duration varies) where eating at all is a triumph; no one needs all the paranoid crap on top of it. My assumption has always been that there's precious little science behind any of these recommendations, because what IRB will green-light that? And what subject will sign up?

What to Expect has some useful stuff in terms of milestones, but it also has a definite point of view which is sometimes best ignored. Personally I wish I'd actually *finished* Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth (which *also* has a point of view, but it much more up-front about it, and has an extensive annotated bibliography in case you want to read studies yourself, although the point of the book is basically that she reads science about labor & delivery so you don't have to). I think solid communication with a philosophically compatible health-care provider might be more useful than a book as far as pregnancy goes, though.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Option 3: Hilarious!

Also, what ricevermicelli said.