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Health benefits of breastfeeding

Guest Editors:
Anna Coutsoudis, PhD, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Tanya Doherty, PhD, South African Medical Research Council, South Africa


BMC Public Health called for submissions to our Collection on Health benefits of breastfeeding. The World Health Organization recommends initiating breastfeeding within the first hour of birth and continuing to exclusively breastfeed children for their first six months of life, without the introduction of any other foods or liquids, including water. Breast milk contains all the nutritional components that the baby needs for its growth and development. Moreover, breastfeeding has health benefits also for mothers.

New Content ItemThis collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Anna Coutsoudis: University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Prof Emeritus Anna Coutsoudis is a public health scientist (Pediatrics and Child Health) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.  Her primary research interests are breastfeeding protection, promotion and support, human milk banking, and prevention of vertical transmission of HIV.  She is committed to improving maternal and child health in vulnerable communities through empowering strategies and research and has published over 160 papers in peer reviewed journals.  In recognition of her contributions, amongst other awards, she is a recipient of the Science for Society Gold Medal award by the Academy of Science of South Africa.  

Tanya Doherty: South African Medical Research Council, South Africa

GE-Tanya DohertyProf Tanya Doherty is a chief specialist scientist in the Health Systems Research Unit, SAMRC. Her research focus is health system requirements for the optimal delivery of priority child health and nutrition program at community and primary care. She has conducted several cluster-randomized trials and program evaluations of breastfeeding interventions in South Africa and across the continent and has published over 100 peer reviewed articles. She is also an honorary professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, UCT and the School of Public Health, UWC where she teaches and assists with student supervision.

About the Collection

BMC Public Health is calling for submissions to our Collection on Health benefits of breastfeeding. 

The World Health Organization recommends initiating breastfeeding within the first hour of birth and continuing to exclusively breastfeed children for their first six months of life, without the introduction of any other foods or liquids, including water. 

The best breastfeeding practice requires that infants are breastfed on demand, which means that mothers are encouraged to feed their babies whenever the baby wants, including during the night hours. This approach helps to keep up the ideal production of milk and synchronize it with the baby’s needs. 

Breast milk contains all the nutritional components that the baby needs for its growth and development, moreover it provides passive humoral immunity thanks to the presence of antibodies, protecting the baby from infections and diseases.  

Breastfeeding has health benefits also for mothers, including a lower risk to develop breast and ovarian cancer but also other types of conditions such as type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Other benefits of breastfeeding include strengthening the mother-baby bond, promoting skin to skin contact and the release of prolactin and oxytocin which are associated with lower levels of maternal stress. Finally, breastfeeding straight after giving birth increases the mother's oxytocin levels, promoting the contraction of the uterus and helping it to return to its normal size more quickly and preventing hemorrhage.

In support of Sustainable Development Goal 3- Good Health and Well-Being, BMC Public Health has launched this collection calling for research on the health benefits of breastfeeding. We would particularly welcome submissions addressing but not limited to:

  • The role of breastfeeding in improving health outcomes for children and mothers
  • Breastfeeding promotion interventions
  • Women's perceptions and experiences of breastfeeding
  • The relationship between breastfeeding and the incidence of infant illnesses
  • Factors influencing the practice of exclusive breastfeeding 
  • Socio-economic and environmental factors affecting breastfeeding 
  • Barriers to exclusive breastfeeding


Image credit: [M] Pixel-Shot / Stock.adobe.com

  1. Breastfeeding support interventions are associated with longer breastfeeding duration. Contemporary nationally representative data on breastfeeding support as reported by women in England is lacking. Using Eng...

    Authors: Maria A. Quigley, Sian Harrison, Ilana Levene, Phyllis Buchanan, Jenny McLeish and Fiona Alderdice
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2024 24:3284
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Asthma and allergic diseases (such as allergic rhinitis) are multifactorial chronic respiratory diseases, and have many common pathogenic mechanisms. This study aimed to assess the joint effects of breastfeedi...

    Authors: Wenyan Hou, Fengjun Guan, Wenying Chen, Jike Qi, Shuiping Huang and Ping Zeng
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2024 24:3056
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Breastfeeding duration is a critical component of infant and child nutrition, providing immediate and long-term benefits to both children and their mothers. This study uses data from the lot quality assurance ...

    Authors: Florence Nakaggwa, Derrick Kimuli, Norah Namuwenge, Rebecca N. Nsubuga, Hellen Nayebare, Louis Kaboine, Immaculate Baseka, Kenneth Kasule, Sheila Nyakwezi, Solome Sevume, Norbert Mubiru, Barbara Amuron and Daraus Bukenya
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2024 24:1512
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Breastfeeding is associated with reduced postpartum depression, stronger parent-child relationships, and fewer behavioral disorders in early childhood. We tested the mediating roles of postpartum depression an...

    Authors: Sarah E. Turner, Leslie Roos, Nathan Nickel, Jacqueline Pei, Piushkumar J. Mandhane, Theo J. Moraes, Stuart E. Turvey, Elinor Simons, Padmaja Subbarao and Meghan B. Azad
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2024 24:675
    Content type: Research Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Public Health 2024 24:1611

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Health benefits of breastfeeding" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.

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