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A new report says more than 800,000 babies’ lives could be saved every year, if all women began breastfeeding within the first hour of giving birth. Save the Children calls breastfeeding one of the best ways to prevent malnutrition, a major killer of children under age five. Save the Children CEO Carolyn Miles says it’s vital to begin breastfeeding soon after a child is born. “It’s extremely critical because to get mothers to actually start breastfeeding can sometimes be the hardest part. And that first milk from mothers, that contains something called colostrum, is an incredibly nutritious form of breast milk and it actually has a lot of immunity powers, as well. And it really only happens in those first couple of hours,” she said. The report describes colostrum as a child’s “first immunization.” But in some cultures, such as parts of Niger, there’s a myth that colostrum is dangerous. “One of the biggest barriers that we found, when we looked at this report, to moms’ breastfeeding, is a lot of these cultural beliefs and one of them is that colostrum is, in fact, bad for babies. So, in a lot of places around the world the mothers actually throw it out. And it’s the best thing that you could be giving to your babies. So a lot of this is about behavior change. And those are just old traditions that have been passed down and things that we’re trying to change, obviously,” said Miles. | 
