The UN Children’s Fund on Tuesday marked the beginning of World Breastfeeding Week with a reminder that Burma could help save thousands of babies if mothers relied on breast milk. The country has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the region, the World Health Organization says, and only spends about three percent of its budget on healthcare. “If all of the world babies were fed only breast milk for the first six months of life, 1.5 million infants’ lives would be saved every year, including thousands of lives in Myanmar [Burma],” said UNICEF Burma Representative Ramesh Shrestha. The organization said that 85 percent of Burmese mothers do not feed their children exclusively on breast milk during their first six months. If they did, childrens’ immune systems would be stimulated to fend off illnesses including severe respiratory diseases and diarrhea, two of the biggest killers of Burmese children, UNICEF said. Burma’s state-run press has enthusiastically heralded the beginning of World Breastfeeding Week. The New Light of Myanmar on Monday and Tuesday printed articles outlining the health benefits of breast milk, while also running a poem on the subject: “Breastfeeding’s best part, holding baby close to mom’s heart, the time just starts, to get a special love string knotted fast,” reads one of the verses. World Breastfeeding Week ends on August 7.