Proven results: how Finland’s baby mortality rate dropped dramatically

THE Baby Box is new to Wexford, but for 75 years Finland’s expectant mothers have been given a box by the state: a starter kit of clothes, sheets and toys that also functions as a bed. And it’s credited with helping Finland achieve one of the world’s lowest infant mortality rates.

In the 1930s Finland was a poor country with high infant mortality - 65 out of 1,000 babies died. But the figures improved rapidly in the decades that followed and by 2015 Finland had 2.26 per 1,000 births, one of the lowest in the world (in Ireland, it’s 3.7).

Of course the decrease of infant deaths in Finland was not alone down to the maternity box but the introduction of pre-natal care for all women in the 1940s, followed in the 60s by a national health insurance system and the central hospital network.

Finland’s baby box tradition dates back to 1938. To begin with, the scheme was only available to families on low incomes, but that changed in 1949 when the income test was removed and new legislation meant in order to get the grant, or maternity box, mothers had to visit a doctor or municipal pre-natal clinic before their fourth month of pregnancy.

In Finland today, the maternity package - a gift from the government - is available to all expectant mothers. Mothers have a choice between taking the box, or a cash grant, currently set at €140, but 95% opt for the box as it’s worth much more - as much as €400.

The Finnish box contains bodysuits, a sleeping bag, outdoor gear, bathing products for the baby, as well as nappies, bedding and a small mattress.

With the mattress in the bottom, the box becomes a baby’s first bed.

Disposable nappies featured in the box for the first time in 1969, but at the turn of the century, the cloth nappies were back in and the disposable variety were out, having fallen out of favour on environmental grounds. Around this time, baby bottles and dummies were also removed to promote breastfeeding.