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Home › Articles › Issues for Mom › Bible and the Breast

Bible and the Breast

How Breastfeeding Impacts the Religious Woman

By Jennifer M. Paquette

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Being religious doesn't mean you have to be squeamish about baring it all for your baby. Mia Diamond Padwa of Bronx, N.Y., is an observant Jew and the mother of three children. She nurses anytime, anywhere and that includes shul (synagogue) and Shabbat (Sabbath) meals at other people's homes. "I do not expose myself any more than necessary,nor do I hide in another room," she says.

Padwa laughs as she recalls her son's bris (circumcision). "Right after Shmuel's bris, I was heading into the ... ladies' room to nurse," she says. "The rabbi [asked] with concern if that would be private enough." Ironically, Padwa had been nursing her daughter, Eliana, in the back of the shul for the last three years.

Hunger vs. Modesty
For Padwa, religious modesty doesn't contradict a mother's imperative to feed her children in the best way possible. In fact, breastfeeding is part of Jewish tradition. The Hebrew word for baby, she points out, actually comes from a root meaning "to suckle." "A baby is defined as a nursing baby," she says.

At a conference of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, Padwa addressed the subject of "Breasts, Babies and Boundaries: Breastfeeding in the Talmud." "The Talmud clearly considers breastfeeding the only way to feed a child," she says. "Tzniut [modesty] is certainly an important value, but it is a misinterpretation ... to think that a mother feeding her child is immodest or improper."

Christian women, too, are spreading the word that breastfeeding is part of God's plan for our bodies and our families. Elaine Smith* of Dubuque, Iowa, is a pastor's wife. She cites the verse, "Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her ... for you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance" (Isaiah 66:10-11).

Though many believe the Bible uses exclusively male images of God, these verses are a glimpse into God's softer, more nurturing side. And if it's good enough for God, it's good enough for us, says Smith. "If God Himself uses ... nursing and feeding a child as an analogy to explain His love for us, then I feel no shame in doing these things and talking about them."

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