After they return home parents don t simply take out the more valuable sleeping items and discard the cardboard box.
Cardboard box baby bed finland.
It s a growing trend to have your newborn sleep in a cardboard box known as baby box.
And at the bottom of the box is a thin mattress.
When the program launched in 1949 the government gave mothers a choice.
A recent survey found that just 37 percent of families there used the baby boxes as a sleeping place dr.
A bit of bedding and a miniature sleeping bag arranged in a cardboard box.
You get the idea once the goodies are removed what remains is an inexpensive little baby bed to keep an infant on the floor right next to mama all night.
That s right the cardboard box that carries these essentials is not just any ordinary receptacle.
A portable bassinet for nightime or naps baby boxes are lightweight and sturdy cardboard boxes that expectant mothers in finland have been using as bassinets since the 1930s.
Add the mattress and it ingeniously becomes a safe and simple crib.
Even so that s the first place that many finnish infants lay.
It s called the maternity box.
With the mattress in the bottom the box becomes a baby s first bed.
Many children from all social backgrounds have their first naps within the safety of the box s four cardboard walls.
Due in part to this maternity kit custom finland has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world and other countries are taking notice.
In finland baby boxes have had a dramatic impact.
Valley news live looked into the practice to see if it is really safe.
For decades the finns have given every new baby a big cardboard box filled with free diapers wipes warm clothes etc.
Most parents in finland don t even use the boxes as a baby bed.