Islamset - Motherhood In Lactation

Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Motherhood In Lactation
(Lactation Fosterage)

It must be that suckling the baby establishes such an intimate relation between woman and infant that when God wanted to impress us with the enormity of the awe to strike us on the Day of Judgement, He quoted the following picture:

"O mankind! Fear your Lord. For the convulsion of the Hour (Of Judgement) will be a thing terrible. The day you shall see it, every woman giving suck shall forget her suckling-babe, and every pregnant female shall drop her pregnancy. You shall see mankind as in a drunken riot, yet not drunk: but dreadful will be the wrath of God." (22: 1-2)

Islamic law gives a special regard to this "milk-relation", and raises it to the level of a blood relation as far as marriage is concerned. Innumerating the categories of women that a man shall not marry , Islamic law considers the suckling mother on the same footing like the natural mother.

"Prohibited to you (for marriage) are: your mothers, daughters, sisters, father's sisters, mother's sisters, brother's daughters, sister's daughters, foster-mothers who gave you suck, foster sisters (daughters of women who suckled you), your wives' mothers, your step-daughters under your guardianship born to your wives to whom you have gone in ( consum-mated marriage), no prohibition if you have not gone in, (those who have been) wives of your sons proceeding from your loins (natural sons), and two sisters in wedlock at one and the same time except for what is past, for God is Oft-forgiving." (4:23)

The hadith of th eprophet says:

"God has forbidden out of suckling relations the same as He forbade out of blood relations." (Termizi)

Because the suckling foster-mother is considered a mother, her daughters are considered sisters and cannot be married by her son-in-suckling. This is not only applicable to the sister with whom he shared lactation, but to all her sisters. Daughters of his lactation brothers and sisters are neices and cannot be married, and their sons are nephews. The sister of the foster-mother is considered an aunt and therefore he cannot marry her (but can marry one ofher daughters, who would be his cousin). Nor can he marry the sister of his foster-mother's husband, since she would be his paternal aunt. If the foster-mother's husband responsible for the pregnancy that provided the suckled milk has children from a second wife, they will be considered step brothers and sisters and the same rule applies. Similarly, the parents of the foster mother and her husband (from whom the lactation-producing pregnancy resulted) will be considered grand parents, and none of such grandmothers can be married even if age is not an obstacle. The lactation relations have been so far described from the point of view of a man taken as a propositus, but since there is no marriage without a man, a woman can easily work out her position in relation to marriage on the same guidelines.

Further details have been given by jurists concerning the criteria that are prerequisite for the legal establishment of this relation of suckling fosterage, sometimes with divergence of honest opinion. The first controversy is about the amount of suckling and the number of feeds necessary to establish such motherhood. A hadith of the prophet reported by his wife Aisha says:

'The one or two sucks would not cause the prohibition." (Muslim, Abu Dawood, Termizi, Nisai'i)

Another hadith of the prophet refers to the quantity of ingested milk:

"It will not affect suckling motherhood unless it produces hardening of bones and growth of flesh." (Abu Dawood)

A wide spectrum of opinions, each with relevant justifications, can be found in jurisprudence books. The majority opinion specifies five (or more) separate satiating sucklings that would be enough to add to bone and flesh. An age limit has also been debated, the majority setting the cut-off at two years which the Quran defined as the complete term of lactation: "The mothers shall give suck to their offspring for two whole years for whosoever desires to complete the term of lactation." (2:233)

The method of administration of milk is also discussed. Some scholars make no difference whether the baby sucked the breast, received the milk by dropper or spoon into its mouth or even nose, or even eating the milk after being transformed to cheese. But most scholars subscribe to the logical opinion that breast-feeding by definition entails two essential steps: the taking of the breast by the baby's mouth, and the ingestion of the sucked milk. If either or both of these two steps are lacking, then the procedure is one of ordinary nutrition that does not qualify for being a case of foster (milk) maternity.