Is Drunk Breastfeeding A Form Of Child Abuse?
Posted by: Justine Fields
Filed in:
news
2:30PM, Wednesday June 24th 2009
Add this to the list of things not to do while drunk: breastfeed. Stacey Anvarinia, 26, from North Dakota, didn’t catch that memo. Earlier this year, police officers responded to an unrelated call at her home when they noticed she was drinking while breastfeeding. The brilliant cops weren’t sure if that was okay, so they put in a call to the local hospital to confirm that was not so good for the 6-week-old baby. The baby was taken out of Anvarinia’s custody. Yesterday, she plead guilty to child neglect and now she’s facing up to five years in prison. Clearly, the baby was put in harm’s way, even if the cops didn’t know it at first. But do you think this should be considered child abuse? [Grand Fork Herald]
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powplz
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 02:37 pm: [report]
Absolutely. Drunk breastfeeding = providing alcohol for a minor/forcing an infant to ingest a substance that is not safe.
lea322
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 02:40 pm: [report]
Definitely. That baby had absolutely zero choice in the matter. And if the mom is that ignorant (or that addicted) she needs some serious outside help.
Infamous
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 03:38 pm: [report]
Someone didn’t pump and dump. But does it deserve five years in prison? I don’t know about that one.
Molly Poppy
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 04:19 pm: [report]
She needs two years forced outpatient rehab or forced to not breastfeed. Anything else is cruel to the woman and crueler still to her child. I pray for that family.
lahnne
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 04:27 pm: [report]
five years seems a little extreme since neither she nor the cops knew it was unwise (even though it may be obvious to most of us). i bet she’ll get off on some plea of not being better instructed by rns, doctors, whatever.
Yellow
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 05:25 pm: [report]
I agree that drunk breastfeeding is a kind of abuse, and I also agree that 5 years in prison is ridiculous. I feel like if this mother is breastfeeding her baby, she clearly cares about it, and the fact that she was drinking while nursing was probably due to lack of education. Now she’ll be in prison, and the child will spend 5 years without a mother, which one could argue is worse for the wellbeing of the child than the dose of booze it was getting. What this woman needs is outpatient counseling and perhaps probation to keep an eye on her drinking until the baby moves on to soft foods or a bottle.
Dwacon
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 05:28 pm: [report]
A different twist on the White Russian…
Goldfinch86
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 06:40 pm: [report]
I understand this is a problem but at the same time this was never an open issue 40 years ago and would not have been considered child abuse. Our parents lived in lead painted houses and their parents smoked around them and worse yet they were hit when they were bad. I’m sorry but other than beating we need to back off the Brothers Keeper mode of thinking that has swept this nation. I understand that yes it’s wrong, but time in prison, please. That is cruel and unusual punishment that I thought America was against.
betty123
wrote on June 25 2009 @ 06:05 am: [report]
Regardless of right or wrong, the cops were there on an unrelated call? You can’t put down your drink for a few minutes while whatever that matter was got handled and you were stupid enough to breastfeed while doing it? I don’t know how much the kid would benefit from being around that bright bulb. However, 5 years is definitely way too harsh.
friskyman68
wrote on June 25 2009 @ 07:09 am: [report]
It safe to say it is wrong as it is unhealthy for the child. But seriously, the harm removing that child from her parent, the harm of putting that lady in jail (once you have that on your record it’s almost impossible to recover…there is no forgetting that), far exceeds her actions. Geez, send her to parenting school for a few wks. Or a shrink or something.
NaomiK
wrote on October 28 2009 @ 02:42 pm: [report]
Unless there’s other evidence of neglect, I don’t think 5 years in prison is right. I think there’s a lot of information missing from this story. We need more information before we can really say the sentence was called for.