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It has been a couple of years since I have regularly seen articles floating around, praising the fact that “Finnish Babies Sleep in Boxes”.  The topic cropped up again, because apparently there are some regions in Alberta that will be adopting the practice of furnishing new mothers with a cardboard box full of clothing, that can be converted into a crib.  While I commend the initiative to ensure that all mothers have adequate clothing and essential supplies for their infants, I find the gist of the headlines (“babies sleep in boxes! Yay!”), and frankly, the very notion of a baby sleeping in a box, to be sad, and misdirected.

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Mammals are hard-wired to sleep next to their mothers.  Many mothers choose to place their infants in various types of contraptions during the night, and this is the prerogative of each parent.  But I can’t personally get behind the overt encouragement of this practice.  Sadly, the baby-box, and the discouragement of bed-sharing is still touted as a method of preventing SIDS, despite the fact that rates of SIDS remains lowest in countries where co-sleeping is the norm (Japan, for example).

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To my mind, it would make far more sense for governments to offer to all mothers a guaranteed income, so that every woman can care for her baby in the way that she deems appropriate.  (note: I re-read one of the original articles about the Finnish boxes, and apparently, mothers can opt instead for a cash gift, which is great).

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I voiced some of these grumpy objections on my Facebook page, and one of my lovely and brilliant readers—who happens to live in Finland herself–shared the following, on the topic of the famous baby-boxes, which reveals a motivation that I think I intuited somewhat, but the totality and specificity of which I certainly didn’t see as clearly as this:

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“I live in Finland, and got a Finnish baby box when I had my child, and I share your opinion. Yes – the free, good quality gender neutral baby clothes, and even a few cloth diapers, are really nice, and socially equalizing. But, having read about the history of the box, it’s left a bad taste in my mouth. First off, the whole concept was devised as a way to force poor mothers (of which there were many in rural, undeveloped Finland in the first half of the 20th century) to attend the newly-created public prenatal clinic system in the 40s. The idea was that mothers who attended the prenatal clinic before their 16th week of pregnancy – the purpose at that time was for syphilis and tuberculosis screening, and for the municipal midwife to become aware of the impending birth – would receive free baby supplies. This was a big reward at that time because a lot of people were really extremely poor, like 10+ to a log cabin and not enough food or clothes for everyone, especially not a new baby, poor. But they had to make it all coercive instead of just providing services to those who chose to take advantage of them. It was a way to force the last traditional midwives out of business and to discourage unassisted births, and to bring women and birth under the control of the state. The box-as-a-bed concept went along with this modernist-hygienist “enlightenment” attempt: it was specifically intended to discourage bedsharing. And, though few people actually use the box as a bed anymore, the box continues to have a rubber foam mattress at the bottom, and comes with baby bedding too. Most Finnish babies today sleep in a crib, though room sharing is common for under-1s and bedsharing common-ish and not officially discouraged (some birth hospitals even encourage it nowadays, imagine that!).
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When the baby box was introduced, infant mortality rates were very high in Finland. They fell rapidly over the next few decades, but I think it’s highly questionable to claim that this is due to the baby box (I see this implied a lot in articles about it). The standard of living rose exponentially from the 30s to the 70s. Medical care became available as well as some basic social assistance. Food security was attained for the majority. Birth control was legalized. The school system was totally revamped. The number of people living in abject poverty went from fairly high to extremely low. The baby box, as well as the maternity and infant care clinic system, was part of this but more a symptom than a cause of the new social equality and infant welfare. Babies didn’t start living because they had a box to sleep in, though the clothes might have helped. They started living because they had enough food, their families could afford adequate clothes and shelter, and they could access a doctor when they needed it. “

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Well, this pretty much sums it up.  I’m so grateful to have been able to encounter so many brilliant women through this blog.  What are your thoughts on Baby Boxes?

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