OK, Yom Kippur is over, so for this year this is now kind of academic.  And
I'm behind on my digests (since of course yesterday/Yom Kippur was a
noncomputer day for me...), so maybe the final word on this topic has already
been spoken.

Nonetheless, since this still comes up every year for some counselors and
plenty of moms, and since a bunch of people asked me, here's more detail on
the halakhah (=jewish ritual law) of fasting for pregnant, postpartum, and
lactating women.

First of all,   Judaism is a multivocal kind of religion, so it's not
surprising that you get varying answers on pretty much any question you might
ask.  The versions I'm going to quote below are all paraphrases from the
_Shulhan Arukh_, the most definitive of the great medieval codes of Jewish law
(mostly at or around siman 617), and out of its commentators.

1. Every Jewish adult is under the obligation to fast on Yom Kippur, all day,
from just before sunset on the eve before until after 3 stars show (about an
hour after sunset) the day of.  So, in the first instance, pregnant and
nursing mothers are supposed to fast all day.  However: Every adult is under
another, even more stringent obligation, to do nothing that would harm her own
or another person's (or fetus's) health.   So that limits the obligation to
fast.

2. Pregnancy.
Any pregnant woman -- or woman who has missed her period and wonders whether
she may be pregnant! -- who feels hungry or thirsty, or who feels or knows
anything else which makes her even concerned that the fetus may be harmed,
MUST eat or drink.  A woman suffering from any condition which affects the
health of her fetus -- examples usually given are diabetes, high blood
pressure, etc -- must consult with her doctor to find out whether she may fast
at all.

Ideally if she must eat she should eat in small quantities, which in some
circumstances can be ritually deemed as if she didn't eat at all (if this is
your circumstance you should probably ask your local Jewish authority for the
detailed arcana of minutes and amounts); but if she still feels hungry/thirsty
etc she may eat without limits.

A hcp's admonition to eat or drink makes it mandatory -- but doc's admonition
to eat or drink is NOT necessary if she feels weak etc as above.


3.Post partum.
For the first three days she is considered "a person mortally ill" and MUST
eat if she can.   Days 3-7 she is encouraged but not obliged to eat, if she
feels she can fast and wants to.  After 7 days she is in the same category as
any other person who is ill but not dangerously so (or the pregnant woman
described above) -- fast if you can, if not then eat whatever you must,
starting small and working up as necessary.

4. Nursing:
Like everyone else, a nursing woman is obligated to fast on Yom Kippur.
However, if the child is sickly or will not drink formula  [I'm quoting here
from contemporary commentaries on the Shulkhan Arukh, most of which are under
the impression that formula is "safe" for most children -- needless to say my
own children were **by definition*** "unable to drink formula!" ], or if by
fasting she won't have enough milk for the child, she is not obligated to
fast.  *****A mother may not endanger her child's health by fasting.*****

Summary:
So the answer I usually give people who ask me is:  Theoretically you are
obligated to fast if you could do so and be confident that it would not hurt
your milk supply.   But the state of lactation knowledge is that you CANNOT be
confident it would not hurt your supply, so in the case before us you MUST
drink, and you yourself should judge whether you also need to eat.

If you are dealing with Orthodox families, remember that their rabbinic
advisor, not you, is going to be telling them what the law is.  Your job is to
tell them -- and/or their rabbinic advisor -- what the medical/physical facts
are on which that person is to base his decision.   So what you want to be
saying in most of those circumstances is:    "You should know that in some
women even pretty mild dehydration can have a very bad effect on their milk
supply, and we can't know in advance which women those are, so fasting may
potentially be dangerous to your child's health."   (Assuming of course that
this is what you think!)

Then  that family can integrate this information with what they know, or learn
from their rabbi, about their religious obligations.

Deena Zimmerman -- you are more knowledgeable than I in this area -- are you
reading Lactnet?  Am I reading these sources right in your opinion?


Elisheva Urbas
New York City
(glad to have survived 25 hours without caffeine -- addiction is so pathetic!)