Human milk bank services and Islamic milk kinship: pathways and processes for ensuring respect for religious law and tradition in the provision of donor human milk for small vulnerable newborns

Islam provides strong support for infants to be breastfed, including for wet nursing where mothers are unable to breastfeed. Amongst those infants who may be in need of breastmilk from another woman are small vulnerable newborns. These infants can benefit from donor human milk from a human milk bank (HMB). However, in Islamic contexts, HMBs must be both medically and religiously safe and take account of the religious principle of milk kinship whereby the consumption of breastmilk can create a family relationship between the donor mother and the infant. This paper explores the variety of circumstances under which milk kinship may be created and highlights the two main pathways followed by HMBs to ensure religious safety. It presents the case of the KK HMB in Singapore as an example demonstrating how close collaboration between medical and religious authorities can enable HMBs to provide donor human milk to small vulnerable newborns. Finally, key processes for HMB establishment in the context of Islamic milk kinship are outlined including partnering with key religious leaders, knowing and working with local understandings of milk kinship, ensuring clear communication, proactively addressing community concerns and designing and adapting HMB processes to ensure religious requirements can be maintained.