Breastfeeding and Judaism, part IV: pumping and weaning

Welcome to part VI in the Breastfeeding and Judaism series. Click here for part I, introduction and religious roots.

Pumping

As with other breastfeeding/chestfeeding parents, many Jewish mothers return to work after having their babies (note: this is less common among the ultra-Orthodox). So pumping is likely to be a significant part of their lives for that reason, or, of course, for any of the other myriad reasons that some parents express milk, such as having a baby who is not well enough to latch. Rabbanit Leah Sarna mentioned how in the US, where she is located, pumps are covered by health insurance and most women work, so owning and using a pump is really common. The issues are that they may not recognise that they would need to pump every day and would assume they could take the sabbath off or that non-Jewish IBCLCs who work with them might not know that they need to find solutions to the problem of pumping during the sabbath, when you aren’t supposed to work.

For religious Jews, there is a prohibition on working during Shabbos (or Shabbat, the sabbath, from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown). In this context, working means doing something for a purpose. If a woman were to hand-express or use a manual pump, this would be considered work and she would have to discard the milk, because otherwise it would be employed for its purpose. For this reason, an electric pump is to be preferred, because the breastfeeding parent is not doing the work. But a religious Jewish woman cannot turn the pump on and off herself.

Leah, who also teaches the Talmud to teenage girls, and who is writing a book on the halakhah (the religious laws) of pregnancy, birth, and early parenting, told me that there were some electric pumps with Shabbat timers. However, she noted that they aren’t necessarily the best quality pumps and some aren’t available at the moment. The best thing, of course, would be to feed the baby directly at the breast, but if a mother usually pumps or if she is away from her baby on Shabbos or otherwise has to pump during Shabbat, Leah said, “I’m advocating that the better thing to do is to choose where you’re going to pump on Shabbat, keep it plugged in, and use your elbow to turn it on. That’s the halakhic option.” The pump does the work and you’re indirectly turning it on in this case (switching the electricity on would be considered work).

Of course, if a woman happens to have a non-Jewish friend, neighbour, nanny/au pair, or someone else who can turn the pump on and off when needed, that is also a solution. Most people probably do not have this, however.

A Jewish mother who requested that she remain anonymous told me, “When my first son was born, I used a Medela manual pump on Shabbat.  I remember hearing some time later that there was some question about whether using a pump was allowed, but I wasn’t aware of that at the time. When my second son was born, I still pumped sometimes during the week, but I was able to set things up so that I was with him on Shabbat and didn’t use the manual pump. It was just more trouble than it was worth.”

If you are supporting a Jewish woman who pumps or who needs to be away from her child on Shabbos, it’s important to help her find a solution that will fit within her religious framework. In general, using an electric pump is more acceptable, but the woman will have to find a way of indirectly turning it on and off, such as with her elbow, as Rabbanit Leah Sarna suggested.

Weaning

When I put a call out for people’s personal stories about breastfeeding and being Jewish, a few told me that how they fed their children had nothing to do with their religion, but the great majority connected feeding to their spirituality. For a number of Jewish women, the choice to breastfeed had to do with being Jewish; they breastfed because they felt Jewish law encouraged it and their community supported it. For others, how they behaved during the breastfeeding relationship was influenced by – and in turn then influenced – their religious beliefs and actions.

For example, some told me that they had weaning ceremonies in the synagogue. This provided a signal to themselves, their nurslings, and their community that this part of their relationship was over. I was told that in the Tanach (the Hebrew bible), there are references to celebrating the breastfeeding relationship and weaning, so there is some precedent for this. Rabbanit Leah Sarna said that a good example was Genesis 21:8, where Abraham throws a party for Isaac’s weaning. In a previous article in the ABM magazine, I talked about weaning celebrations and jokingly wondered what they could be called; one possibility was a bar/bat breastvah (the name inspired by the Jewish ceremonies bar/bat mitzvah). It turns out that I was right that there were Jewish approaches to weaning ceremonies.

Others said that they went to the mikvah (the ritual bath) in order to mark the end of breastfeeding and they explained that using the mikvah was a way of separating themselves from breastfeeding.

Conclusion 

As this series has shown, opinions and practices differ among Jewish women, but there are a number of key points to consider when working with Jewish mothers on their breastfeeding journeys, namely fast days, menstruation, pumping, modesty, breastfeeding in synagogue, and weaning. 

Jewish mother and poet Rachel Neve Midbar sums it up well when she says, “Jewish law sees breastfeeding as a natural function. Breastfeeding takes precedence over almost everything else, because it’s about the life of a child.” It’s important for us breastfeeding counsellors to understand the Jewish roots and beliefs around breastfeeding, so we can best help support them.

Resources 
Books and Articles

Mamaleh Knows Best by Marjorie Ingall – this isn’t about breastfeeding, but it’s a great introduction to how Jews parent. 

B’Sha’ah Tovah: The Jewish Woman’s Clinical & Halachic Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth by Rabbi Baruch Finkelstein and Michal Finkelstein.

“Breastfeeding and Showing Affection in Shul” by Rabbi Ysoscher Katz: https://library.yctorah.org/lindenbaum/breastfeeding-and-showing-affection-in-shul/ 

“‘Blessings of the Breasts’: Breastfeeding in Rabbinic Literature” by Jordan Rosenblum:  https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.15650/hebruniocollannu.87.2016.0145

“‘And Her Breasts Opened Up Like Two Springs of Water’: Breasts and Breastfeeding in Rabbinic Texts and Tradition” (a research thesis about breastfeeding and Judaism) by Rabbi Rebeccah Yussman: https://sites.google.com/view/rry-thesis/home 

“Fasting on Yom Kippur by Pregnant or Nursing Women” by Ruth Balinsky Friedman: file:///E:/Research/Breastfeeding/Yamim%20Noraim%20Companion%202018%20-%20Maharat%20Ruth%20Balinsky%20Friedman.pdf 

Websites and Videos

Breastfeeding: Science, Sensitivity, and Halakhah by Deena Zimmerman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=9sWQJWg2hxo 

Rabbanit Leah Sarna’s Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/rabbanitleahsarna/?hl=en 

IBCLC Hannah Katsman’s website (with many useful texts about Judaism and breastfeeding):   https://www.amotherinisrael.com/

Derachecha: https://www.deracheha.org/search_gcse/?q=breastfeeding 

Nishmat’s Women’s Health and Halacha: https://www.yoatzot.org/?s=breastfeeding

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Shoshana Pritzker: NutritionbyShoshana.com