Breastfeeding in public places such as restaurants can make other patrons uncomfortable, but when a mother is nursing her baby and consuming alcohol simultaneously, something should be done. At Woody’s Bar and Grill in Chesapeake, VA, a mother who identified herself as Crystal, was told to leave the bar after patrons complained about her behavior. Crystal claimed to have only taken one sip of beer, as she was going to finish the rest after she was done nursing her baby. NYDailyNews reported that the mother also had a shot of fireball whiskey in front of her as well.
The mother took her rage to Facebook where she accused the restaurant of being “unfriendly to breastfeeding moms,” according to NYDailyNews. It seems to me that Crystal is trying to pin her mistake on the management of a restaurant that was only trying to do the right thing. The mother claimed she was a chemist with a knowledge of the levels of alcohol she can consume without harming her baby, however, the idea of consuming alcohol while breastfeeding is wrong.
The Mayo Clinic suggests that women wait at least two hours after consuming any amount of alcohol before nursing their children because the amount of alcohol going into their bloodstream is the same amount that is entering the breast milk. Instead of lashing out on Facebook about the restaurant mistreating her, this mother should be more concerned about the health of her baby.
Jeff Leroy is a co-owner of Woody’s Bar and Grill but was not present when the incident occurred. Leroy and the other owner–who has not been named–explained the difficult situation on their Facebook page, stating that during their five years of being in business, they had never come across an issue where they did not allow a woman to breastfeed in the restaurant. The sole issue was clearly the simultaneous consumption of alcohol while breastfeeding her child.
Both managers of Woody’s Bar and Grill posted their side of the story on their Facebook page, “In this particular incident, we were asked to address concerns by other patrons who were observing the situation. Our manager went to address those concerns and accommodate all parties involved. Unfortunately, we were unable to do this and attempted to rectify the situation amicably without success.” After personally working at a restaurant and understanding the concept of the customer always being right, I can see how difficult this situation must have been for the manager, but I fully agree with the steps that were taken to remove this mother from the bar. To me, one unhappy customer is better than losing multiple customers by allowing a mother to consume alcohol and breastfeed while doing so, which would create a very negative image for the establishment and potentially cause them to lose business.
Unfortunately the mother is taking this situation completely out of context and trying to make the restaurant look bad, when in fact, it is her who looks bad, as well as irresponsible.
Lisa Ramirez is head of resource development and is also the project advisor at Healthy Start Coalition which provides resources to pregnant women such as information, psychosocial and nutritional counseling, childbirth and breast feeding education, among many other services. During a phone interview with The Minaret, Ramirez advocated for breast feeding in public places. “Mom’s have the right to breastfeed in any public space, that is their right in this country,” Ramirez said. She did not feel, however, that there was any problem with the mother breast feeding while having a beer. “It will not hit her milk cycle as she is consuming it. It will take a while for the alcohol to hit the milk supply,” Ramirez said.
While I can see that waiting a reasonable amount of time is technically safe, I feel like it was reasonable for the manager to ask the mother to leave. It’s pretty much an unwritten rule: if a baby is developing in your body or nourishing itself from your body you should not be doing anything that could potentially harm the child. Drinking alcohol is not alright when a child is inside the womb, so I would think a mother would stay away from it in order to ensure the safety of her child.
Elizabeth Rockett can be reached at elizabeth.rockett@spartans.ut.edu