Mother Charged For Drunk Breastfeeding: Details Emerge, and the Case Makes Less Sense
The AP reported Monday on the case of Stacey Anvarinia, the North Dakota woman who recently pleaded guilty to felony child neglect for breastfeeding under the influence. She could face 5 years in prison when she is sentenced in August.
As you may remember, the story emerged last week, and initially there were numerous questions lingering. Not to mention a lot of debate on whether alcohol consumption affects breastmilk and therefore the babies who drink it.
But now, a few more details have come out about this case, and it actually makes less sense. Grand Forks Police Lt. Rahn Farder commented on it:
This case is more than just the breast-feeding. It was the totality of the circumstances. It is quite unusual for a mother to be breast-feeding her child as we are conducting an investigation, whether she was intoxicated or not.
Huh?!
Not only does that puzzling quote leave me wanting to interrogate the police force, so do a few other points.
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The police arrived at Anvarinia’s home after receiving a domestic disturbance call. Anvarinia said that her boyfriend assaulted her, and the police report said she had swelling on her nose and chin and a scratch on her cheek. Indeed, in the above mug shot, she does look a bit messed up.
The boyfriend was not there at the time they arrived and has not been charged for the alleged assault. Grand Forks authorities also decline to say who currently has custody of Anvarinia’s 6-week-old daughter.
The AP story also included a mention that the woman had a previous criminal record, but did not say what that involved.
Finally, there’s this:
It’s unclear how much Anavarina had to drink. Police never conducted a blood-alcohol test. Investigators believed she was drunk, and her arrest on a charge of child abuse and neglect did not require a test.
‘The majority of our problems are caused by alcohol,’ said Grand Forks Police Capt. Kerwin Kjelstrom. ‘Our officers handle it so much that it is pretty much a general knowledge thing to know when someone is intoxicated. It’s pretty obvious.’
Oooh. Now I get it. A woman who gave birth 6 weeks earlier and then was allegedly assaulted (in the head, no less) and happened to have a criminal record was perceived to be drunk, so she probably was. Therefore, it was obviously in the best interest of mother and breastfed child that they be separated. Like I said…making less sense all the time.
There are ongoing arguments in the online community about this case. And the more details that emerge, the more discussion there will be, it seems.
Though I don’t agree with most of what the “The Skeptical OB” writes, I do agree with these words, from retired OB Dr. Amy Tuteur,
Since when is breast-feeding while drunk a crime? If she had been bottle-feeding her baby, no one would have bothered to check what was in the bottle. You can do a lot more damage by mixing formula wrong.
Image: Grand Forks County Correctional Center
::boggle::
I’m struggling to understand this. So… is the police officer implying that “the totality of the circumstances” form a basis for the neglect charge? For a FELONY neglect charge, at that. i.e., the fact that she was breastfeeding in front of the officers was EVIDENCE of neglect or proof that she was drunk? WTF???
AND… even though a call was about a domestic disturbance and there was evidence that the woman had sustained some injury, no charges had been brought against the boyfriend who allegedly beat her up? Guess the whole, “I’m a dude… can’t lactate, therefore I’m innocent” defense really works wonders in Grand Forks.
I find it interesting that the argument lies in whether “alcohol consumption affects breast milk and therefore the babies who drink it”.
The pro or con of that argument aside, maybe we should be focusing more on whether women have the physical/mental capacity while “under the influence” to be taking care of a newborn or child of any age.
Wow. On almost every level.
This is jacked.
I know my mom, her mom and most all of my aunts and grandmothers enjoyed the occasional Pabst Blue Ribbon or Schlitz AND those little blue Valium - often at the same time. And, we were all breast-fed
Glad they weren’t in North Dakota or we would have all been raised without benefit of our mothers.
AND, the whole spousal abuse issue just floors me. I’m going to go out on a limb here, but were the arresting officers maybe guys? And, perhaps they’d never been beat about the head and shoulders within weeks of giving birth? Just a guess.
Every day we get more and more stories that support the notion that we are in great need for an overhaul of our judicial system.
This is beyond ridiculous.
I don’t understand this either — if you take away a lactating mother’s baby, there’s a good chance that her milk production will stop, even if she expresses daily. Also, what’s the baby drinking now? Formula? Babies often have a hard time adjusting when they’re switched from breast to bottle and then back.
I agree. I’m now more confused about the case.
This always looked like a domestic violence case to me. How many more women will be afraid to call the police when they are being abused now?
The only way this could make less sense is if Palin started issuing statements for the Grand Rapids Police Dept. Was this guy under the influence when he said this?!?!
Gloria- thanks for the chuckle.
I mean, really, where was the sense in his issue with her BFing? “We can strip search people, but God forbid a woman feed her child from her breast in front of us. Now *that* is worth investigating.” Weird.
Plus, if we want to nit-pick, clearly she WASN’T neglecting; she had the child on her breast!
And the domestic violence part of it? I can’t fathom why they’re not going after this guy.
I still think there’s got to be more to this story that is being reported. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say that the police probably suspect drugs but did not have the evidence to prove that in court. So they trumped up this whole nursing-while-apparently-drunk thing to get her into custody.
this is ridiculous! 6 week old babies eat approx every 90 min. Domestic abuse cases take awhile to check out. Odds are she was going to have to nurse while they were there. Really there is NO LAW regarding breastfeeding and drinking and rightly so. Child neglect?!? These Officers need to get the riot act from every woman they know. If more women breastfeed we wouldn’t have to explain ourselves and how this whole ‘lactation thing’ works…