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Breastfeeding and disability/chronic ill health

Edited by:

Sally Dowling: University of Bristol, UK
Tanya Cassidy: Maynooth University, Ireland
Emma Douglass: University of the West of England, UK

Submission Status: Open   |   Submission Deadline: 30 April 2024


International Breastfeeding Journal is calling for submissions to our collection on Breastfeeding and disability/chronic ill health. We are interested in papers that focus on breastfeeding for women with disabilities (including intellectual and physical disabilities) and those with chronic ill health.

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 2 and SDG 3.

Image credit: Mary Cassatt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

About the collection

International Breastfeeding Journal is calling for submissions to our collection on Breastfeeding and disability/chronic ill health. We are interested in papers that focus on breastfeeding for women with disabilities (including intellectual and physical disabilities) and those with chronic ill health. We are not considering papers where the focus is on a baby who has a disability. We welcome papers using any methodology appropriate to the focus of the study.

Submitted papers will be reviewed initially by the three Special Issue Editors and if deemed appropriate for inclusion, will undergo the usual journal review process, with each paper overseen by one of these Editors. If we decide that your paper is not suitable for the Special Issue but is of interest to IBJ readership more generally, we will suggest that it goes through the usual processes for consideration for publication. Although we are looking for completed papers at this stage if you have an idea for a paper or a project nearing completion, please contact us (sally.dowling@bristol.ac.uk) to discuss as we may still be able to consider  your paper.

Please read the submission guideline for further details. 

  1. The number of pregnant women with congenital heart disease (CHD) is rising, and the disease poses increased risks of cardiovascular and obstetric complications during pregnancy, potentially impacting breastfee...

    Authors: Ylva Holstad, Bengt Johansson, Maria Lindqvist, Agneta Westergren, Inger Sundström Poromaa, Christina Christersson, Mikael Dellborg, Aleksandra Trzebiatowska-Krzynska, Peder Sörensson, Ulf Thilén, Anna-Karin Wikström and Annika Bay
    Citation: International Breastfeeding Journal 2024 19:19
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding as the best method for infant feeding. Known risk factors for breastfeeding non-initiation and early cessation of breastfeeding are diverse and include lo...

    Authors: Hilary K. Brown, Lesley Pablo, Natalie V. Scime, Amira M. Aker and Cindy-Lee Dennis
    Citation: International Breastfeeding Journal 2023 18:70
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. More women with intellectual disabilities are becoming mothers but fewer are known to breastfeed compared with other women. Women with intellectual disabilities are entitled to accessible antenatal and infant ...

    Authors: Emma Douglass, Clare Johnson, Geraldine Lucas and Sally Dowling
    Citation: International Breastfeeding Journal 2023 18:67
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This collection welcomes submission of Research Articles. 

Before submitting your paper it is very important that you read the aims and scope of the journal and the submission guidelines and that you understand the Article Processing Charge commitment. We may have some fee waivers available but please first check if your research funding or institution will cover the APC. Contact us if you would like to discuss this. 

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 "Breastfeeding and disability/chronic ill health" 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.

We would like to receive all submissions by December 2023, although as IBJ is an online-only journal we may be able to consider articles after this date.

We look forward to receiving your paper; please contact us if you have any queries.