Several cities are trying to battle high infant mortality rates with cardboard boxes.
More specifically, the cardboard boxes can act as makeshift cribs for babies.
The idea is actually decades old and originated in Finland about 75 years ago. The country gives every mother a box that includes educational materials about parenting. The box itself has mattress padding that can be used as a makeshift crib. In exchange for the box, the mother has to receive prenatal education before the baby is born.
Several U.S. cities, including major metropolitan centers like Philadelphia and Detroit, are following Finland’s lead and pursuing baby box programs in an effort to reduce baby deaths.
Almost six out of every 1,000 babies born die during their first year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Causes include suffocation or strangulation in bed, for example, when an infant is wedged between two objects such as a mattress and a wall.
However, Finland has one of the lowest rates in the world, at 2.5 out of every 1,000 babies, according to the CIA’s World Factbook.
In Detroit, the infant mortality rate in 2014 was 10.5 per 1,000 babies born, one of the highest in the country, according to data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which tracks child health issues. The city hopes to start a baby box program next year, according to a report in the magazine Governing.
In Philadelphia, the mortality rate for 2014 was seven per 1,000 lives. So the city’s health officials reached out to the Temple University Hospital System to help tackle the rate.
Temple looked into baby boxes and decided to give one to every expectant mother starting in May 2016.
“We are the first in the country to do universal distribution at such a large scale,” said Megan Heere, medical director at the Well Baby Nursery at the hospital.
Temple is conducting studies to see if distributing the boxes can help reduce infant mortality rates.
Anecdotally, Heere said mothers she has spoken to have loved the box. In addition to a cardboard box with a standard bassinet mattress, Temple gives mothers educational material and a onesie and socks for the infant.
An organization called the Baby Box Company has worked with three U.S. municipalities — San Antonio, Texas, San Francisco and Minnesota’s Twin Cities — and plans to have a presence in 33 states next year.
The company created an education platform for expecting mothers to use to receive information on parenting.
“We have the local healthcare providers create a syllabus for these materials,” said co-founder Jennifer Clary. “The way that the program model works that everyone in our community has access to the education.”
Clary said expanding the program nationally isn’t in the cards right now, even though the company has worked to expand in Canada.
“The challenge with the U.S. as opposed to Canada is they have nationalized healthcare,” she said.
Clary noted that some states have different healthcare needs and regulations, making implementation nationwide difficult.
“Starting out in the U.S. it will take a few stepping stones to get to the federal level,” she said.
Democracy Labs is a weekly feature covering state-level policy experiments that could filter up to Washington. Send suggestions to [email protected].
