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Cha pter III
LACTATION
(LACTATION FOSTERAGE)

Breast feeding is the natural way by which the human infant is nourished. It is also the best way. Alternative feeding with various formulae of artificial milk has not stood the test of time in spite of continued attempts at perfection and a wide publicity and encessant promotion. Mother's milk confers immunity against some diseases, is not associated with allergic reactions, and provides the exact composition needed by the human baby, a composition which is both reliably constant and adjustable to the needs of the growing baby. Besides, the psychological role of suckling in establishing the mutual mother-infant bond has been well documented. Artificial "formula" feeding has lost favour with the medical profession and various health authorities including the World Health Organization have launched a campaign in favour of the return to breast feeding, emphasizing the proven hazards of bottle feeding. Efforts are being made at the social level in many countries to enable even the working mother to breast-feed her infant. Undergraduate and postgraduate medical and nursing curricula in all enlightened institutions underline the significance of preaching and preparation for breast feeding as a salient feature of modern antenatal care. The importance to the infant of being breast fed is given a very special regard in Islam, so much so that when a baby is suckled by a woman other than its natural mother, this woman is Islamically considered a "mother in lactation" to him, with consequent rulings that will soon be discussed. While they are lactating, many women will cease to have menstruation for a variable period of time that in some women continues as long as they are lactating. This is because a hormone associated with lactation- prolactin-exerts a suppressive action on the function of ovulation.

At the scale of society at large-though not reliable for an individual woman practising breast feeding instead of bottle feeding would be the most effective method of contraception, more effective than all the currently available methods put together, and naturally devoid of their possible  hazards.

Reference has already been made to the ruling on lactation as a legitimate excuse from keeping the fasting of the month of Ramadan. Other Islamic aspects of lactation will now be considered.