And it is even better for the child to be nursed by his own mother alone, for her milk is more beneficial, more wholesome, and safer in the long run than the confusion that can arise from multiple wet-nurses and the milk-kinship (maḥram) ties that may later lead to marital complications.

Physicians strongly recommend a mother’s milk, all the more so during the earliest months of life. Through experience, medical reports, and professional advice we now see the divine wisdom in the fact that the infant’s natural food comes from his mother’s breast.

Dr. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Bār writes, “Breast-feeding carries tremendous benefits.” Among the health benefits he cites is the Almighty’s statement: “Mothers shall breast-feed their children for two complete years—whoever wishes to complete the nursing” (Q 2:233). In this verse the Lord, exalted is He, establishes the child’s right to be breast-fed, instructs both parents to consult one another regarding their infant, and links the whole matter to God-consciousness. Fourteen centuries after this noble verse was revealed, international organizations and global bodies—such as the World Health Organization, which issues communiqué after communiqué—now call on mothers to nurse their children, whereas Islam had mandated it fourteen centuries ago.

Some of the benefits of breast-feeding for the newborn are:

1. A mother’s milk is sterile, ready to drink, and free of microbes.
2. No manufactured substitute—whether from cow, sheep, or camel—matches a mother’s milk. It has been perfectly designed and composed to meet the infant’s needs day after day, from birth until weaning.
3. A mother’s milk contains the precise amounts of protein and sugar suited to the child, whereas the proteins in cow’s, sheep’s, and buffalo’s milk are difficult for the infant’s stomach to digest because they were created for the young of those animals.
4. Children who are nursed by their mothers grow faster and more completely than those who are fed by bottle.