Alcohol has an exceptional ability to spread through the body very quickly - into the blood, internal organs and brain. Because of this ability, it will be found in breast milk in less than 30 minutes.
We all know what happens when if affects the brain: we relax, lose our social inhibitions, start doing silly things, and can end up staggering around and getting quite unwell. A mother having a drink could be giving her little one a couple of tots. For adults, alcohol is safe in moderation but this is not true for babies. Their tiny liver and brain can't deal with alcohol in the same way ours can, meaning they are more susceptable to the adverse affects.
Current research indicates that an occasional one or two units (a small glass of wine is 1.5 units) is not harmful to mother or baby as long as enough time elapses before breast feeding. The body treats alcohol as a poison and works hard to get it out of the system quickly; it takes about two hours to remove one unit of alcohol from the blood of a breast feeding mum. (Alcohol isn't stored in breast milk.) If going to a party and wishing to have one small glass of wine, some mothers express milk beforehand to take with them.
Dr Stuart Farrimond, Wiltshire Times 2 May 2014
