Marijuana and Breast Feeding ????

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A relative of mine just had a baby who is now only 2 weeks old. While over at their house I observed the Mom go out to the garage and smoke a "joint" and also drank a shot of tequila which was served by the father of the baby. I asked the Mom if she realized that both substances would get into her breast milk and to the baby when she feeds her. The Mom just sort of blew me off stating that her body will detoxify itself in two hours, -- which personally I know is not true cause the chemical THC found in marijuana - is stored in the body fat, the same place that the breast milk is made. I asked another relative who is staying at the house how long the Mom had been doing this, and she told me this has been going on for about a week. I'm scared for the baby's health and how she will be cared for with her mother being high off of pot. This is her 1st child too. She knows I'm a Nurse but she's not listening to me as far as this being bad for the baby. Would I be wrong if I called child protection ? What should I do ?

Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.

Are we mandated to report such things (and risk losing our licenses if we don't) if we are not on duty? Or is this a 24-7 thing?? I mean, if this is a 24-7 reporting requirement, then I'll never be able to go to downtown anywhere again because I'll have to have a constant line open to CPS to report the people who are not conducting their lives according to the rule makers. Not that I condone this kind of behavior as the parent of a 2 week old. I do not. But I'm not sure you risk you license in not reporting if you are not on duty.

Personally, I think all you can do is try to talk to the parents. And offer to get them some good information if they seem open to that. It's a tough spot to be.

Good luck.

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Originally posted by tntrn

Are we mandated to report such things (and risk losing our licenses if we don't) if we are not on duty? Or is this a 24-7 thing?? I mean, if this is a 24-7 reporting requirement, then I'll never be able to go to downtown anywhere again because I'll have to have a constant line open to CPS to report the people who are not conducting their lives according to the rule makers. Not that I condone this kind of behavior as the parent of a 2 week old. I do not. But I'm not sure you risk you license in not reporting if you are not on duty.

Personally, I think all you can do is try to talk to the parents. And offer to get them some good information if they seem open to that. It's a tough spot to be.

Good luck.

Yes, a mandated reporter has to report anything whether you are on duty or not. It's a 24/7 thing.

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Good job Lela RN! It's hard enough taking care of a new baby without the influence of drugs in your system...I can just imagine what a shot and joint would do..

As far as needing the drugs to relax to breast feed...thats BS! See a lactation consultant or La Leche league or switch to formula. This woman definaltly needs to learn some coping and parenting tech.

Now not to put my foot in my mouth... I did hear that a few sips of beer would help with the lactation..Something with the yeast... I never tried it( I would have been drunk after the first) but did take Brewers yeast and it worked.

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Great job, Lela RN! You did the right thing! :)

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Specializes in cardiac, diabetes, OB/GYN.

Sarah Kat, it isn't easy especially when it comes to a relative or friend BUT if that patient was in the hospital and the drug screen came back positive, she would immediately qualify to be seen by social services...Depending upon the amount and type, there could even be a 51 A filed...That said, just because the couple is already known as the party couple and despite the fact that they are married, something should be said to them and if it continues, an anonymous or completely up front phone call can certainly be made....Party after breast feeding is done and party away from the children..Ideally, it would be lovely to do so without benefit of illegal paraphrenalia, but this is the real world...If she is doing that now while breast feeding, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that she subjected the infant to same while it was in utero, and that is just not responsible....I would say the mom is definitely lacking in parental skills, and while it is fortunate that those with hippie moms who took certain substances turned out fine ( in my case, my mom was a smoker and had social ETOH), these things were not really known back then and these days pot is much stronger than in the past....

What is this family going to tell the child....Go party hearty! After all, WE did.....

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Good for you, Lela. Mandatory reporting is widespread and well-known but certainly difficult to actually do. It takes a lot of courage and bravery to do the right thing. You spoke up for a helpless infant who is incapable of defending itself. You spoke up when noone else would (not even the Grandma). Good for you. I feel sorry for the baby. CFS will hopefully resolve the issue. The parents will hopefully receive an excellent education and some parenting classes and some COMMON SENSE!

But I am shaking my head in sorrow that the grandmother did nothing to put a stop to this nonsense when she knew it was happening. My husband and I are fiercely protective of our children (my father worked for the provincial police for greater than 30 years and we once had a nine year old stay with us until his parents could arrive after the police found him bound, gagged and naked on the back floor of a vehicle - he had been kidnapped from outside the public pool more than a thousand miles away - lessons like this were drummed into our heads). When neither my husband nor myself are able to be home overnight, my mother or my sister-in-law are the only people I would trust to care for my children. They are like mother grizzlies in their devotion and protection over my children. It saddens me that not every grandmother is like that.

If I was this woman, my mother (despite her love for me), would have physically removed the baby from my home, called CFS and retained physical custody until I had proven myself repeatedly to be a competent parent. It does take a village to raise a child - when a parent or parents are not doing what is appropriate for their child, the rest of the village needs to stand up and do what's right. I'm sorry that you didn't have the "village" to back you up, Lela. You should be proud of being able to stand up as the single voice of reason, no matter how hard the decision.

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Lydia, speaking from experience, I know it is unfortunate, but CAS will not remove a child from their parents for social drinking or marijuana use alone in Ontario. They will get involved and do some "counselling and education", but unless there are other signs of abuse or neglect, that's about all they will do. I find dealing with CAS one of the most frustrating aspects of my job. They are so concerned with maintaining the integrity of the biological family that they don't seem to protect children enough... but I guess that's a whole nother thread

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Originally posted by michelle126

Good job Lela RN! It's hard enough taking care of a new baby without the influence of drugs in your system...I can just imagine what a shot and joint would do..

As far as needing the drugs to relax to breast feed...thats BS! See a lactation consultant or La Leche league or switch to formula. This woman definaltly needs to learn some coping and parenting tech.

Now not to put my foot in my mouth... I did hear that a few sips of beer would help with the lactation..Something with the yeast... I never tried it( I would have been drunk after the first) but did take Brewers yeast and it worked.

Nope this isn't a rumor. Sometimes when a woman needs assistance with lactaion, the reason being is low milk supply and stress. So we were taught (in the hospital) and by La Leche that if you indulge in an 8oz beer OCCASSIONALLY, then the yeast from the beer will improve your supply and also help you destress. I tried it with my first baby and WOWZA! Lets just say i never had to do it again cuz the milk bomb went OFF! lol

But then again, i had a beer in his entire 22 mth nursing career, so that's true occassional or social drinking i suppose.

Good for you Lela, i hope something positive happens from all this. Keep us posted, i know how hard it must be for you.

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In Oklahoma when we have a MJ + baby it is not grounds for removal from the home. The peds do not allow them to breastfeed. ETOH, meth, coke, etc are removed from the home. DHS is notified of the situation with the MJ + babies, the parents are so suprised when DHS walks in there room and threatens to take the baby. I have a cousin that works for DHS in WVA asked her if they removed MJ+ babies from the home and her response was "no, noone would get to keep their baby if we did" sad isn't it. :(

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I'm in sort of a pickle. My sister-n-law is due at the end of february. This just so happens to be when I will be in the middle of my preceptorship on the mom/baby unit. She and her husband smoke pot on a regular basis. When I confronted them about it, they said they had done some research on the internet and couldn't find any proof that it could harm the baby. My sister-n-law is extremely underweight, and I hate to make the generalization----but they look like your typical burned out pot heads. They are both very young, uneducated, and can't hold down a job. My problem is that I want to work on the mom/baby unit. I'm afraid that there might be some suspicion of drug use after the baby is born. How is it going to look if I am on that unit trying everything I can to impress these people, and my sister-n-law and her baby test positive? Even though I will still be officially a student, is it my responsibility to report this, and if I don't, will they become suspicious of me?

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We NEVER participate in the care of family members. I would speak to a faculty member or your state board of nursing about your concerns.

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I think this is a no brainer.

Your mandated to report so you must. It doesn't matter that it's a family member or not....it's your job and part of your licensure so do it..even if it's from a pay phone at walmart w/ out giving your name...

and have I got a story for ya'll.

Back in Sept I went was in a local hospital's 'smoking pavillion" taking a break after many hours of coaching a friend thru labor.

All of a sudden all HE%% broke loose...in runs this huge guy...and chasing right after him is this tiny little girl that looked about 12...screaming that he's a p(#((& and a #$%^head etc...oh it was SO not pretty...so she's hitting him and freaking out etc...I thought it was his DAUGHTER she looked THAT young.

Well a nurse on break grabs the girl....I told the guy to go grab security and the nurse and I try to calm her down..I mean she was FLIPPING...talking about stabbing him in his sleep etc.... really FREAKY!

The nurse says "can u do this?" I nod..and off she goes....to find he-man and security...so I'm sitting w/ this nutball and calming her down....so she tells me this LONG horrible story...she's postpartum....she's 17, her baby is a 26wkr...and she went in preterm because her dips#$% bf neglected to tell her that the MJ she was smoking was laced....

so I"m kinda freaking...I don't smoke mj, nor do I do OTHER recreation drugs..and I certainly wouldn't EVER even think of doing it while prego!

So long story short...she's mad because bf went to the nurses and told them everything ....because obviously they have a very sick baby and want some info ....

so then nurse comes back w/ 2 security guards... I tell them to talk to her...I fill the nurse in quickly since she's getting agitated and freaking about security... off nurse goes again....

so I stay w/ her and tell her to go to her nurse and TELL her what she told me...no it wasn't OKAY that she was drugging while preg. but was a moot point since the baby had surely had a tox screen run by then and they ALREADY KNEW what was in it's system...prob more so than SHE did...

so she's saying she wants to go home etc...

I tell her the baby isn't going w/ you...you know that...so she's crying ...

and saying the nurses were going to keep her baby...blah blah...

hate to get unsympathetic..but give me a break....

this chic did not just fall of the truck..

so nurse comes back w/ A REAL COP...and says to her "come on we have to go talk".....takes her by the hand and off they go...

so I go back to my friend just flabbergasted...

the nurse was a friend of mine and so she's in the hall talking w/ some other nurses..and I asked her if my friend was ok...as my 10 min break turned into an hour....due to a crack momma... and she starts laughing and saying that she just KNEW I was somehow involved..and that the nutball had tried to take the baby out of the nursery....had been screaming for release and they were sending AMA.....til the cops and cps could go get her for child endangerment.

It seems crack momma showed up OVER a yr prior for a preg test and tested NEG to pregnancy but POSITIVE for crack among OTHER things.....so they already knew the situation when she showed up prego in labor, no prenatal care and HIGH on top of it.....

all w/ a click of the button on the puter.

I don't know what happened but can tell you crack momma DID not get her baby and he was going to foster care...IF and only IF he made it. my friend said things looked really bad...lots of damage from the drugs...definite neuro issues etc... so I don't know.

I do hope crack momma was prosecuted or at the very least talked into having her tubes tied!

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