The JHL article reflects the thinking of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR)
which may influence families in other countries, including
Muslim countries.  This is new thinking from Muslim scholars and
families living in primarily non-Muslim countries and specifically
addresses preterm infants. 

 “In some Muslim nations, the use of wet nurses is still very
common, but whether this practice also involves preterm infants is
unknown. There are, however, some rare occasions when DHM is offered
to the preterm population in NICUs in Muslim countries. There have
been some reports of hospitals in Muslim nations providing
unpasteurized donor breast milk to preterm infants under some special
conditions6,7:
this process involves the donor and recipient families meeting and
agreeing that their offspring cannot marry.” 

Times are changing but perhaps more
quickly in Montreal & Dublin than Riyadh!  There was an article
on milk banks and kinship a couple years ago in Azizah, published out
of Atlanta (USA) – interesting because it was aimed at young Muslim
women rather than HCPs.

For those who listened to James Akre's
GOLD 12 talk or who are involved with community milk sharing
networks, it's clear there is a lot more to consider if we want every
family to have access to human milk.  Every baby needs milk, every
mother needs culturally appropriate lactation support.  The needs of
pre-term and other compromised infants are different from the needs
of healthy full-term infants -- and we could use more models for family support.

Milk banks and milk sharing will take
new forms in Muslim nations.  Challenge begets change and we
shouldn't assume change only flows from west to east.  I would love
to hear from IBCLCs and others living in the Arab world. 


Susan Johnson MFA, IBCLC
Salt Lake City, Utah USA



________________________________
 From: the juliest person you know <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 10:39 AM
Subject: Islam and milk donation
 
There is an article in the current Journal of Human Lactation on milk donation in Muslim countries.
 
You can read it here if you are an ILCA member: http://jhl.sagepub.com/content/28/2/125.full.pdf+html
 
To summarize, Muslim scholars have declared that pooled donor milk is okay because a) the mother does not directly suckle the other baby, b) because the milk is pooled, no one mother's milk makes up an entire feeding and c) when in doubt, consider the greater good.  
 
Julie Tardos
 
P.S.  I like the term "breastfeeding beyond infancy" that someone else brought up.  It describes the situation without any possible judgement (real or perceived) attached.  

~~~
Ever notice how Peacekeepers carry the biggest guns?

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