Hi Susan
the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (www.bfmed.org) has a protocol on feeding with cleft lip and or palate. I am not aware of specific studies around the issue of aspiration and in my experience babies with cleft palates rarely aspirates although
it is possible as their sucking and backward movement of milk are all affected by the palate cleft and lack of ability to create negative pressure. The primary challenge however is the inability to create negative pressure on which milk removal from the breast relies. Depending on the size of the cleft the baby is inefficient and I have not seen a baby with a cleft palate being able to establish breastfeeding fully in spite of their mothers' valiant efforts. The one's who were able to establish breastfeeding were those with only perhaps the uvula atypical, but the dome of the palate still fully intact. Babies with cleft lips can usually breastfeed. 
imo it is important to encourage latching on the breast if the baby is able to. This gives the mother time and opportunity to get to know her baby and work through grieving. Babies will usually become very dissatisfied at the breast unless they are supplemented there. Supporting mothers to bring in a full milk supply by frequent expression in the early days give them options later on so early abandoning of breastfeeding is unnecessary. The initial feeds consist of small amounts of colostrum and we usually use finger sucking with the milk delivered via syringe or supplement the baby at the breast with a syringe if he can latch. The bottle supplementation only needs to start once the volumes increase significantly and syringe and finger feeding becomes impractical. The main issue is to provide mothers with information so they can make informed choices. It is not for HCP to decide how a mother will feed her baby. We can only provide good information and then allow mothers to decide for themselves. Perhaps you can meet with the Speech Language Therapist and see if you can develop a protocol that will allow mothers to establish a full milk supply while preparing for suck feeding and with gradual introduction of a supplementary system like the cleft palate feeder.
Loraine Hamm
SLT/IBCLC
New Zealand

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