Mothers in Finland Use Cardboard Boxes for Newborns. Here Are Their Reasons For Doing So

New parents love the Finnish baby box. It's sent by the government to moms-to-be and is full of tiny booties and socks, onesies and baby bibs. And the box itself can be baby's first crib.

Expectant moms in Finland have been receiving free baby boxes from the government since 1938. It started as way to support impoverished families help poor citizens raise their children and reduce infant mortality. In the interwar period, 65 toddlers per 1000 died because they often slept in same bed with their parents. This form of aid has survived to this day. The colors and design of the clothes are changed every year, and all the gadgets are universal.

Today, the box is provided to all pregnant moms who enroll to receive them. Goods within the box change every year.

We decided to look into this iconic Finnish innovation

Cardboard furniture is very cheap and will be a salvation for parents who can't quite afford to buy a crib or a cradle. In addition, it has a small size and can easily fit into even the smallest bedroom or next to the parents' bed. Items for each box are selected annually through a bidding process that invites companies to submit proposals for the inclusion of their items

The box is handy, lightweight and can be moved to any place in our home without much effort. It's a big convenience for breastfeeding mothers, exhausted within night feeds. Thus, the baby box isn't very tall one can just lean over it to pick the baby up at nigh 😉 Plus, the box can be taken with you when you go camping, on vacation or to a hotel.

Sleeping in a box greatly reduces the risk of crib death. The baby should sleep on a firm mattress and without pillows. It is better to put them in a sleeping bag than to cover them with a blanket. It is recommended that they sleep on their back and not to overdressed them. Absolutely avoid putting the baby to sleep on the sofa, car seat, baby carrier or parents' bed. Cardboard boxes make it much easier to follow these rules.

The world heard about Finnish boxes in 2013. At that time, the Finnish government gave one of them to the newborn Prince George. Since then, companies began to emerge to produce baby kits modeled on those received by Scandinavian parents. Boxes with mattress and gadgets can also be purchased on the global market. For Finish moms though, with concerns about the ethics behind the baby box, there is another option: take the money of the box value instead.

Find out why Scandinavian moms let their babies fall asleep in the outdoors.

What do you think about the idea of a baby sleeping in a box?