Excuse me, but it ain't "ain't broke".  Infant mortality is often
extremely high in cultures where colostrum is not fed to the newborn.
With what is it replaced?  With water, often contaminated water.  It is
potentially deadly not to breastfeed from birth in Southern Africa where
I worked and women frequently did this bizarre thing.  Even the
obstetrician (the only local physician) said he could not understand
this, since the people raised cattle, and knew that the calf died
without colostrum.

In Burkina Faso, where I was involved in a UNICEF training seminar a few
years ago, this question came up.  It was explained that in this dry
area, you welcomed a stranger by offering water, the most precious
commodity anyone could have. In the same way you offered the baby, a
stranger, into you home by offering water (though I don't think they did
not offer the breast).  We came up with the explanation that the water
was already in the colostrum, and the local people thought this would
work to explain the need not to give water.  I don't know if we changed
anything, though.

This belief that the colostrum is bad, is not unchangeable in most
cultures.  The mothers think the stuff is bad.  If they are educated
that it is not only not bad, but will increase their baby's chance of
survival, they will nurse the baby from birth.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC

Jack