WS More Or Less: Baby Boxes – are they really saving infant’s lives?
More or Less: Behind the Stats
BBC
4.6 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2017
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ever since a BBC article highlighted the use of baby boxes in Finland they have become a bit of a phenomenon. They’re not new though Finland has been doing this for 75 years. The simple cardboard boxes are given to families for their new born babies to sleep in. Since their introduction cot death and has fallen and child health improved. Governments and individuals across the world have adopted them and companies have sprung up selling them. But think about for minute – can a cardboard box on its own really have such a huge effect – Elizabeth Cassin and Charlotte McDonald have been looking at the truth behind the story.
Presenter: Charlotte McDonald
Producer: Elizabeth Cassin
(Photo:One of Scotland's first baby boxes is seen at Clackmannanshire Community Health Centre. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:40.0 | Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service your statistical guide to the numbers in the news and in life. |
| 0:47.0 | I'm Charlotte McDonald and with me is Elizabeth Kassen. |
| 0:50.0 | Hi Charlotte. |
| 0:51.0 | Hello. |
| 0:52.0 | In June 2013 a reporter published an article on the BBC |
| 0:56.7 | website that had an extraordinary impact. It wasn't about world politics or |
| 1:01.5 | humanitarian disaster. |
| 1:03.2 | No, this article was entitled, |
| 1:05.3 | Why Finnish Babies Sleep in Carboard Boxes? |
| 1:09.2 | The article explained the origin of Finland's policy of giving every pregnant mother a cardboard box filled with baby products such as clothes sleeping bag |
| 1:17.8 | Nappies bedding and a mattress and how the box itself could be used as a bed. |
| 1:23.0 | It wasn't even a new idea. |
| 1:25.0 | Finland had been doing this for 75 years. |
| 1:28.0 | The article has been viewed over 13 million times |
... |
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