How the Finnish save on baby gear

Technology is typically accepted to be what drives our wealth, efficiency, well-being and the general advancement of humanity.

But in the march of technology progress, do we overlook the innovations of yesterday? The inventions we’ve figuratively packed up in boxes and stored in the basement? Or, literally, when the inventions are the boxes themselves?

In Finland, the baby box is an infant sleep solution from the 1930s. It is a cardboard box with a thin mattress pad on the bottom that a newborn sleeps in, and costs almost nothing.

When raising children comes at an estimated aggregate cost of $243,660 over the first 18 years of a child’s life, that inexpensive start may be life-changing.

The history of the Baby Box

The infant mortality rate in Finland – 2.5 per 1,000 live births - is less half of that of the United States and much lower than Canada’s. It is one of the lowest rates in the world.

In the 1930s, the infant mortality in Finland was high and climbing. To combat this, the government introduced the maternity package - a program that sends baby clothes and care products to expectant mothers. At first, the program was offered only to low income families, but gradually it became available to every Finnish mother who visited a doctor in the first four months of pregnancy

The program shipped maternity and post-natal care items for the baby, including diapers, blankets and bathing products. And, of course, a cardboard box that the items were shipped in. That box would double as a crib for newborns.

The story of the baby box was not necessarily a low-cost, low-tech innovation in baby sleeping, but a story of incentives and unintended consequences: the government was simply trying to entice expectant mothers to get to a doctor in the first four months of pregnancy, offering the contents of the box in return.

It went on to be national success story.

Putting the babies in the boxes helped in a multitude of ways: it provided an alternative to the baby sleeping with his or her parents, which brings risk of suffocation and smothering.

Low tech versus high

On the other side of the technology spectrum, is the SNOO Smart Sleeper.

The SNOO is a popular innovation in infant care from the United States: it is a bassinet that claims to boost sleep with rumbly white noise and repetitive motions that emulate the womb.

On top of that, it is sensor-activated to prevent newborns from waking themselves up in the night, and includes a built-in swaddle, a blanket that reproduces the feel of a womb. Co-designed in Silicon Valley by a team of engineers, the SNOO retails for about $1,500 CDN.

The intention is the same as the Finnish baby box: to let both baby and parents sleep soundly, without fears of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or any other dangers infants face in sleep.

A lesson in innovation

The Finnish Baby Box has recently caught on in other parts of the world. Private companies are shipping baby boxes in Australia, Europe, Asia, the United States and in Canada as well.

Of course infant care should not be driven by cost savings. What works for some Finnish families may not be appropriate for families elsewhere. And safety trumps everything.

But the lesson is simple: in the search for tomorrow’s invention, don’t overlook yesterday’s.

Image above from BabyBoxCo.com - a company providing the Finnish baby box all over the world.