2551. The best person to suckle a child is the child’s mother. It is better for the child’s mother not to ask for any wages from her husband for suckling the child, although it is good that he pays her for suckling the child. In the event that the mother demands more payment for suckling the child than a wet-nurse, her husband can take the child from her and give it to a wet-nurse to be suckled.
2552. It is recommended that the wet-nurse who is chosen to suckle a child should have the following qualities: be a twelver Shi’a, sane, chaste, fair-looking. It is makruh to choose a wet-nurse who is unintelligent, bad-looking, ill-mannered, or of illegitimate birth. It is also makruh to choose a wet-nurse who has given birth to an illegitimate child.
