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Minnesota fatwa condones donated breast milk for Muslim newborns
New fatwa from Twin Cities cleric condones Muslim mothers feeding donated pasteurized breast milk to premature and ill babies.
MINNEAPOLIS — A new chapter in local medical history began Thursday at Children’s Minnesota, one that could improve the lives of many children. It resolves an age-old dilemma for Muslim mothers who can’t produce enough breast milk for their newborn babies struggling to grow.
Dr. Mohamed Mahad, an imam at Nurul-Iman mosque in Minneapolis, issued a fatwa that clears the way for Muslim mothers to feed pasteurized donated human breast milk to babies who are premature, ill or have a low birthweight.
“When Islamic law is unclear, Islamic scholars will gather to understand, discuss and issue a fatwa, or legal position on a topic,” Dr. Mahad explained.
To read the fatwa click on this link.
Thursday’s announcement was the culmination of months of discussions among health providers, milk banks, Muslim community members, experts and scholars. This fatwa is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States.
“It brings us great joy to learn that you sought out help to solve this problem by actively involving the communities in the decision-making process and jointly designing a solution with those who are most affected.”
There are at least 140,000 Muslims in Minnesota and many believe that breastfeeding someone else’s biological child creates a form of kinship with that child. According to Dr. Mahad, that creates the risk the child may someday unknowingly marry someone who nursed them or is related to them through breast milk kinship.
For medical professionals in Neonatal Intensive Care units, it has been heartbreaking at times that newborns can’t take advantage of donated breast milk.
“These conversations in NICU often felt like an impasse,” Dr. Leah Jordan, a neonatologist at Children’s Minnesota, remarked at the fatwa-signing ceremony.
“We as the medical team felt strongly about the benefits of pasteurized donor human milk for protecting the life of an infant, and families felt uncertain about how to reconcile pasteurized donor human milk with the beliefs in their faith.”
The fatwa will open the door for Muslim women who can’t produce enough of their own breast milk to rely on the supply from a human breast milk bank.
“This fatwa removes barriers to accessing pasteurized donor human milk for vulnerable Muslim infants and is a monumental step toward increasing health equity in our community,” Dr. Jordan said.
“We celebrate this ruling. The babies who will survive and thrive because of it. The families who will experience peace in their decision-making and the relationships we’ve formed in the process that will allow us to promote equitable health outcomes in our community.”
Much of Thursday’s gathering was devoted to extolling the benefits of human breast milk for developing babies, especially those who are ill or struggling to grow as newborns.
“It’s way beyond nutrition. It is a live, dynamic substance with unparalleled immunologic and anti-inflammatory properties,” said Dr. Nancy Fahim, a neonatologist at M Health Fairview who also teaches neonatology at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
“Human milk saves lives. And when mom’s milk is not available, using pasteurized human milk helps protect these babies against significant infections.”
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Dr. Chip Martin-Chaffee, a neonatologist at CentraCare, amplified those remarks.
“There’s the bacteria actually in breast milk that can populate that sterile infant gut, allowing good, healthy bacteria to grow and foster in that gut, protecting them from getting bad bacteria overgrowth.”
Dr. Martin-Chaffee was especially excited about the opportunity to save babies’ lives in the Saint Cloud area, which also has a large Somali Muslim population. He cited research that shows breastfeeding also gives mothers better long-term health outcomes.
Linda Dech, executive director of the Minnesota Milk Bank for Babies, said most breast milk donations come from mothers who are expressing more milk than they need. She said all donors are carefully screened and the final pasteurized version is regulated by the State of Minnesota as a food product.
But cost and availability have been factors that exclude some families from being able to use those valuable resources. Removing a religious barrier, she said, will be significant in protecting more children.
“With this Fatwa, Muslim families with preemies in the NICU or sick babies in the hospital can have the same access to pasteurized donor milk as others do and help them get off to the best start possible.”
An Army First Lieutenant from Minnesota was killed during World War II, but his remains were not accounted for until now.
WASHINGTON — A Minnesota man is having his remains returned to the continental U.S. for burial 80 years after he was killed during World War II.
Army First Lieutenant Herman J. Sundstad was 26 years old in the summer of 1944. His unit, Task Force Galahad, was engaged with Japanese forces in Burman, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) said.
“The exact circumstances of his death were not recorded, and his remains were not accounted for during or after the war,” DPAA said in a press release published Friday.
Sundstad was from Perley, Minnesota, a town in Norman County that today has a population of about 100.
The American Graves Registration Service recovered a set of unknown remains after his death in 1944. DPAA said those remains were examined but could not be specifically identified. They were taken to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, where they remained for nearly eight decades.
Three years ago, Sundstad’s remains were disinterred, and DPAA said scientists used dental, anthropological, and mitochondrial DNA analysis to find who he was.
Now, funeral plans are made for Nov. 11. At the Tablets of the Missing in the Philippines, a rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Katie Santry has lived at the east Columbus house for about a year. She said she stumbled upon the strange discovery while digging holes for fence posts.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus woman has gone viral on TikTok after sharing a story about finding a rug buried in her yard. The discovery prompted the Columbus Division of Police to get involved.
Katie Santry has lived at the east Columbus house for about a year. She said she stumbled upon the strange discovery while digging holes for fence posts.
“We were building a fence, and we, through digging a post wall, came across a carpet. It was weird but I kind of let it go,” Santry told 10TV on Thursday evening.
LATEST UPDATES: Columbus police provide update after digging up rug from woman’s backyard; no remains found
Some time later, she said her computer was shattered and her desk strewn about in the middle of the night, but no one in the home reportedly did it.
“I jokingly said, ‘did the body in the rug do it?’ and I put that on TikTok, and now everyone at this point has seen it,” she said.
Santry said she was going to leave the carpet-like fabric alone but was influenced by TikTok viewers to call police to dig it up.
“When they first came out, they thought nothing of it, and I think because of the virality of the TikTok, they called me today [Thursday] when my friends and I were actually going to dig this rug up today out of curiosity,” she said.
Columbus police told her they wanted to bring K-9s to investigate.
Santry streamed some of the investigation on TikTok Thursday afternoon. More than 100,000 users tuned in to watch at times, as she showed video of the K-9s sniffing through her yard.
At one point, Santry watches as the dog sniffs a spot and then sits down. She can be heard gasping in the video.
“The world saw the dogs sit on the hole and it kind of ended there,” Santry said.
When asked about the previous owners of the home, Santry told reporters that they were in their 90s and had moved into a nursing home. She believes they were the only owners before her family moved in.
While viewers have tuned in to watch what happens next in the investigation, Santry has watched her following grow.
“The day I posted it I had 6,000 followers,” she said, “It happened like snap of a finger. I didn’t anticipate virality in the slightest.”
A nearby neighbor who has lived in his home for 20 years told 10TV that the attention has been disturbing and alarming.
“This is the loudest it has been in a long, long time,” he said. “I hope they find what they’re looking for and we can get back to life as normal and quiet and peaceful.”
Columbus police began excavating outside the home Friday morning. Officers provided an update in the afternoon saying that no remains had been found.
On Amy Schultz’s birthday, she finally got word their new house withstood catastrophic flooding in their town.
DALLAS — Amy Schultz was supposed to be in the mountains of Western North Carolina for what she called one of her speedbump birthdays – a year that ends in a five.
She lives in North Texas but used to be a Florida resident, so she doesn’t take hurricanes lightly.
She and her husband were scheduled on an American Airlines flight from DFW Thursday.
But when the airline waived its change fees because a hurricane was bearing down across the southeast, they took it as a sign to cancel their trip.
“I am so grateful that we didn’t go,” Amy said. “On the other hand, I’m so devastated by seeing people and their lives and their property. And the culture of that Asheville community is just been toppled and it’s catastrophic.”
Amy Schultz is an artist, and the Blue Ridge Mountains is a haven for the arts.
That’s one reason the couple started visiting years ago. Amy called the region “a national treasure.”
“It’s just so special. It’s out of a fairy tale. The natural beauty is extraordinary,” she said.
Regular visits turned into buying a home in the city of Black Mountain.
They closed on the home on Second Street two months ago. Then came deadly floods.
Buncombe County, where Black Mountain is, reports 57 lives lost and the search for survivors continues.
The Schultzes had become fast friends with their new neighbors, but without power or cell phone service across the region, they couldn’t reach any of them.
They left messages and held onto hope for days on end.
Finally, on Amy’s birthday, a neighbor who had driven to Raleigh finally got cell service restored and let them know their house was standing and only had minimal damage.
“Damage on our end of the street was due more to falling trees than flooding,” Amy said. “We are so relieved and grateful. And still so sad.”
“Our plan is to go back as soon as we can. As soon as it’s safe. As soon as we’re not taking gas away from people who want it, and as soon as we’re not taking water away from people who need it, That’s when we’re going to go back,” Amy said.
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