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Human milk banking and milk kinship: perspectives of religious officers in a Muslim country

Journal of Perinatology volume 35, pages 137–141 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Objective:

The present study aims to determine the knowledge, attitudes and views of the Muslim religious officers regarding infant feeding, breast milk, wet nursing, milk kinship and human milk banks (HMBs).

Study Design:

A total of 401 religious officers were included in the study. Participants included 355 community service religious officers and 46 faculty religious officers.

Results:

Two hundred fifty-four (63.3%) participants were in favor of administering donor human milk when breast milk is not available from the mothers. To the question ‘What kind of human milk bank would you approve as far as the religious sensitivity is concerned?’ a majority of the religious officers (71.3%) responded that they would only approve if the milk pool contained a restricted HMB where a limited number of recipients were allowed to use the mixtures in these milk pools. Only 7 (1.7%) participants advocated initiating Western-style HMBs in Turkey.

Conclusion:

Turkish religious officers have revealed that they would only approve the establishment of an alternative HMB by a maximum three donors where up to three recipients whose identities are known by one another are allowed to use donor milk from each milk pool.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Cathy Beck, senior lecturer from the Department of English, Indiana University, and Purdue University at Indianapolis, IN, USA, for editing this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Inonu University School of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey

    R Ozdemir & A Karadag

  2. Department of Family Physician, Inonu University School of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey

    M Ak

  3. Department of Ethics, Inonu University School of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey

    M Karatas

  4. Department of Public Health, Inonu University School of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey

    A Ozer

  5. Department of Pediatrics, Inonu University School of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey

    D G Dogan

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  1. R Ozdemir
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  4. A Ozer
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  5. D G Dogan
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Correspondence to R Ozdemir.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Ozdemir, R., Ak, M., Karatas, M. et al. Human milk banking and milk kinship: perspectives of religious officers in a Muslim country. J Perinatol 35, 137–141 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2014.177

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2014.177

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