Nursing on Shabbos

Expressing Mother’s Milk on Shabbos

A nursing mother may feed her baby in the usual manner on Shabbos. This sometimes entails expressing some milk directly into a newborn’s mouth, and this is allowed on Shabbos, if necessary.

In the case of engorgement, or other situations that would require a nursing mother to express milk when she is not feeding her baby, there are strict limitations. It’s a melachah min haTorah (a  Biblical prohibition) to even manually pump mother’s milk into a container for use, and it is assur mi’dirabbanan (forbidden by rabbinic decree) to express the milk in a way that renders it unusable. A mother who is in pain has a heter (a dispensation) to express the milk by hand, provided that the milk goes straight down the drain or into a container that ruins it (such as a soapy bottle).

In extreme circumstances, if the mother’s milk is needed for the baby—such as in the case of an infant who can’t be fed formula due to health concerns and relies solely on mother’s milk—a rav must be consulted as to whether milk can be pumped on Shabbos. There are very strict guidelines regarding its permissibility; for example: it’s preferable to use an electric pump set on a timer rather than to perform the melachah manually.

It should be noted that milk that is expressed on Shabbos, for whatever reason, is considered muktzah (cannot be handled directly on Shabbos), and should be moved only with a shinui (in an indirect way).

https://halacha2go.com?number=591

Practical Halacha: One minute a day. By Horav Yosef Yeshaya Braun, shlita, Mara D'asra and member of the Badatz of Crown Heights.