Patricia,
Please get a copy of the video:
"The Special Touch Babies need, Care of Infant With Cleft lip/Palate", video,
1996.  Order from:  The Children's Mercy hospital, Marge Ellgen, 2401 Gillham
Road, Kansas City, Missouri 64108, USA.  Lactation Team  816-234-3594
Craniofacial Team  816-234-3677    Also available from Medela for $45.
This gives a positive view of breastfeeding a baby who has a cleft, and also
shows a dentist actually making an obturator.
Also get this pamphlet:
"Give us a little time:  How babies with a cleft lip or cleft palate can be
breastfed"  pamphlet  by Christa Herzog-Isler, IBCLC Medical advice and text:
Dr. Klaus Honigmann.  Available now from Medela
"Nursing your Baby with a Cleft Palate or Cleft Lip." Danner S.C. and Cerutti
E.R.  Available from Childbirth Graphics, c/o  WRS Group Inc.  701 North New
Road, Waco, TX 76710.  800-299-3366, extension 287.

Also the video:
"SAMUEL" - Video showing breastfed infants with cleft lip and cleft palate,
1994.  Order form to C. Herzog, Pilatusstrasse 4, CH-6033 Buchrain,
Switzerland.  Telephone/FAZ 0041 (0)41-440 22 14.
Sorry I don't know the cost.  I think it might be about $80.  I LOVE this
video as it shows 5 or 6 infants with all kinds of severe clefts breastfeeding
and gulping milk at the breasts.  The moms do need to pump of course to keep
their milk supply up and supplement.  Christina Herzog presents her small
research study that shows babies who actually feed from the breasts had NO ear
infections.  She summizes that the act of breastfeeding exercises the muscles
of the palate causing better ventilation of the middle ear.  Those on formula
had many ear infections and almost constant URIs (Upper Respiratory
Infections).  Those feed breastmilk by other means had just a few ear
infections and URIs.

Both of these videos talk about successful breastfeeding when the baby is
fitted with an obturator, an artificial palate, like the retainer my children
wear after their braces come off.  Sarah Danner said in her lecture (from my
notes) that her experience is that all babies with clefts can successfully
breastfeed to some degree.  She and Dr. Cerutti worked with babies using
obturators.

Just think about it.  When a baby breastfeeds he must first pull the breast
into his mouth.  With a cleft he can't make the suction so mom must help him
hold it in his mouth.
Then he compresses the sinuses with his jaws, hard to do if your gum ridge is
semi-absent.
Next, he must compress the breast between his tongue and palate and strip the
milk from the breast by the rolling of his tongue;  -- hard to do if you have
a big hole in your palate nothing to press against.
The obturator can help with much of this. The objections I hear are that it is
expensive, $80 to $200, and must be replaced every few months/weeks as baby
grows.  Since cleft palate teams are used to their own routines, and have
belief systems as we all do, if they believe the babies with clefts cannot
breastfeed, they see no reason to go to this trouble and expense.

So, go for it.  Even if the baby doesn't get all of his nutrition by
breastfeeding, if the mom can persuade him to nurse, it can be very
beneficial.  Of course the bonding is the best advantage, but infections are
the part the medical establishment will be interested in.
Jane Bradshaw RN, BSN, IBCLC
Lynchburg, VA