The Finnish Baby Box

Summary

99% Invisible: “The Finnish Baby Box”
Host: Roman Mars
Reported by Olivia Humphries
Original Airdate: July 28, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the design, history, and cultural significance of Finland's iconic "baby box"—a cardboard package given to nearly all new parents in Finland, filled with essentials for a newborn's first months. The episode traces the roots of the baby box back to the hardships of early 20th-century Finland, examines how it became a symbol of the welfare state and social equality, and discusses how the idea has spread and evolved across the world. Throughout, it reflects on how seemingly mundane objects can transform lives and mark profound cultural moments.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. A New Parent’s Perspective: From Coupons to Cardboard Boxes

• [01:00-02:00] Reporter Olivia Humphries opens with her experience as a new mother in London, receiving a goody bag of marketing samples and feeling unprepared:
  • "It's always nice to get free stuff. But the bag didn't make me feel better. It just added to the sense that I was woefully underprepared." (Olivia Humphries, 01:37)
• She compares it to Finland, where new parents receive a substantive “baby box” from the state:
  • “A finished baby box is essentially a large cardboard box full of items for a newborn and its parents...a starter kit of everything you'll need for the first six months of a baby's life.” (Olivia Humphries, 02:58)

2. What’s in the Finnish Baby Box?

• [02:34-03:15] On-air unboxing reveals items like a blanket (“Oh my God. So soft. Very soft.”), a toothbrush “for later,” and an array of practical baby gear.
  • The box itself doubles as a crib—a practical solution, especially in small homes.
  • "Very, very cute." (Anina Kuka, 02:46)
  • "Why is this?” — “For later. For later.” (On the inclusion of a toothbrush; Mary, 02:48-02:53)

3. Origins of the Baby Box: 1930s Finland

• [03:54-06:27] Design historian Michelle Miller Fischer discusses the dire conditions Finland faced in the 1930s:
  • High infant mortality rates (nearly 20% didn't reach age five)
  • Poverty, war, and poor sanitation were rampant
• The baby box was designed as a social welfare intervention:
  • "Maybe they could design something that would help in part to change this. And that policy intervention looked like...a set of designed objects within a box." (Michelle Miller Fischer, 05:23)

4. From Charity to Universal Policy

• [05:37-07:55] Early versions were baskets lent to poor families; evolved into state-sponsored packages in a cardboard box (1938), then into a universal benefit by 1949.
  • The box included not only clothing but paper items during wartime shortages—a paper sheet could serve to create a sterile birthing environment.
  • "It became a citizen's right in Finland." (Michelle Miller Fischer, 08:06)

5. The Baby Box as a Social Engineering Tool

• [09:15-14:44]
  • Using the box to incentivize prenatal clinic visits (90% compliance by the 1950s).
  • Its contents reflect both practical needs and deliberate state nudges—e.g., absence of baby bottles to encourage breastfeeding, inclusion of condoms in the 1970s to promote family planning.
  • Shifting between cloth and disposable diapers as policies and cultural attitudes evolve.
  • “There was exactly that. That they were pushed towards something they did not want to adopt.” (Tanya Vattikari, 14:24)

6. Democratic Design: Responding to Public Input

• [14:44-15:42]
  • Kela (the social security agency) surveys parents and allows them to vote on patterns for some items.
  • "Last time it was like 10,000 or something like that, so quite many." (Anina Kuka, 15:34)

7. From Survival Tool to Cultural Icon

• [16:00-20:33]
  • The baby box is now a deeply beloved tradition: “Almost all first time mothers choose the box.” (Anina Kuka, 16:57)
  • Collecting and unpacking boxes is a generational rite, boxes repurposed and passed along.
  • The curated simplicity of the box helps cut through the overwhelming marketing pushed at parents.

8. Equality and Visual Uniformity

• [19:47-20:33]
  • "The kind of idea that everyone gets the same start to life, I think is important for Finnish people." (Mary, 19:47)
  • "There's no stigma in using the items from the box, because everybody does really." (Roman Mars, 19:55)

9. International Spread and Cultural Adaptation

• [26:37-35:49]
  • Discussion with Dr. Anarina Koivu, who researched more than 90 baby box projects worldwide.
  • In some countries, the container is not a box: South Africa uses bathtubs; Malawi, baskets (due to the box’s connotation with coffins).
  • Contents and requirements vary—a mosquito net for malaria areas, mandatory clinic visits to receive the box, etc.
  • Only Scotland and Chile have universal baby box programs similar to Finland's.
  • Commercial versions of the box lack the social solidarity and cultural magic of the official program.

10. Profound Impact of a Humble Object

• [21:03, 22:18–22:38, 23:08]
  • “There’s something incredibly beautiful about looking at a society, looking at this promise that a government makes to its people...We will provide for the newest, the most vulnerable, the tiniest, the most promising people in our society.” (Michelle Miller Fischer, 21:03)
  • "It took us, we did seven rounds of IVF to have our daughter and it was the only pregnancy that actually worked...He looks so happy. It's making me feel emotional even now because it's just so special." (Michelle Miller Fischer, 22:18-22:38)
  • "That box and all its mundane contents connect you to the most profound moments of your life. And in Finland, to generations of parents before you, all of them tucking their newborn children into the humble masterpiece of a simple cardboard box." (Olivia Humphries, 23:08)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• A nudge disguised as a gift:
  "The box has always been about subtly influencing people's decisions." (Roman Mars, 11:57)
• On the feeling of starting equally:
  “There are really few more powerful equalizers than having everyone start life sleeping in an identical cardboard box.” (Olivia Humphries, 20:33)
• On design’s practical and emotional power:
  “Everyday objects that seem unremarkable but are nonetheless worthy of celebration.” (Olivia Humphries quoting a mentor, 21:56)
• Commercial baby boxes can’t replicate the feeling:
  “You just don't get that feeling from a box that's been sold to you by a commercial company. It just loses a lot of the magic. And it's just kind of a cardboard box full of clothes that you didn't choose.” (Olivia Humphries, 35:08)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:00] – Olivia receives the UK gift bag; wonders about alternatives
• [02:00] – Discovery of the Finnish baby box
• [03:54] – Baby box history and social context in Finland
• [07:55] – Universalization of the benefit
• [09:15] – Link between the baby box and use of health clinics
• [12:22] – Politics and parental reactions to the box’s contents
• [16:44] – The cash alternative to the box and why most take the box
• [17:11] – The box as a family tradition, generational memory
• [18:03] – The box’s simplicity vs. baby product marketing
• [19:47] – The box as a symbol of visual equality and shared experience
• [21:03] – The baby box as a social promise and investment
• [26:37] – International adaptations: Scotland, Chile, South Africa, Malawi, and beyond
• [29:39] – Variants: Bathtubs, baskets, and other context-appropriate containers
• [33:28] – New developments: proposals in New York, Wales, and commercialization issues
• [35:08] – Commercial versions lacking social connection

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Tone & Style

The episode is warm, gently humorous, thoughtful, and reflective—balancing history, personal stories, and design insight. It foregrounds the lived experience of parents (with special attention to the emotional overload of new parenthood), the quiet social engineering embedded in objects of state design, and the powerful symbolism of starting life on equal footing.

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Conclusion

The Finnish baby box is an understated but profound example of design: a pragmatic object that carries deep cultural meaning, a tool of public health and social equality, and now a cherished national icon. Its journey from postwar Finland to a global phenomenon demonstrates the adaptability of simple ideas—and how design, at its best, shapes not only our surroundings but our sense of community and care for the most vulnerable.

Transcript

[Olivia Humphries]

Resending us.

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[Roman Mars]

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[Olivia Humphries]

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[Roman Mars]

This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars. Back in May 2018, reporter Olivia Humphries had her first baby. She remembers being in London in a loud, chaotic postnatal ward, waiting to go home. And it was during this time that she was handed a small drawstring bag.

[Olivia Humphries]

Inside it, there was a little towel with a brand logo on it, a few tiny samples of baby shampoo and nappy cream, and a ton of coupons for lots of products I'd never heard of but apparently desperately needed. Now that I had a new baby, it's always nice to get free stuff. But the bag didn't make me feel better. It just added to the sense that I was woefully underprepared.

[Roman Mars]

It was in those first sleepless nights after she returned home with her son that Olivia started to really consider her bag of coupons. Her mind drifted to a better alternative. And she wondered if there was anywhere in the world where new parents were sent home with something more substantial.

[Olivia Humphries]

And that's when I found out what new parents in Finland receive. A very exciting day for us.

[Roman Mars]

Our Finnish baby box has arrived.

[Olivia Humphries]

Our package is here.

[Researcher / Expert]

We got two.

[Olivia Humphries]

Because we have twins in Finland, new

[Roman Mars]

parents also get a package of freebies. But instead of a few sample sized products and some advertising flyers, they get something else. The Finnish maternity package or the baby box.

[Olivia Humphries]

So let's see what is in in here. Ta da.

[Roman Mars]

Good Lord, there's so much stuff in here.

[Michelle Miller Fischer]

This is a blanket.

[Olivia Humphries]

Wow, this is beautiful. Oh my God.

[Pacific Life Advertiser]

It's got bears on it.

[Olivia Humphries]

So soft. Very soft.

[Researcher / Expert]

Oh my gosh.

[Anina Kuka]

Very, very cute.

[Olivia Humphries]

And look, a little, little toothbrush. They don't have any teeth. Why is this?

[Mary (Finnish mother)]

For later. For later.

[Olivia Humphries]

A finished baby box is essentially a large cardboard box full of items for a newborn and its parents. Picture books, nipple cream, warm booties for the freezing Finnish winters. Basically a starter kit of everything you'll need for the first six months of a baby's life.

[Roman Mars]

Virtually every new parent in Finland is eligible to receive one.

[Olivia Humphries]

My first thought when I heard this was, of course, it's exactly what you'd expect of Finland, the happiest country on earth, with its widely revered education system and comprehensive welfare state.

[Roman Mars]

The Simpsons even has a whole episode making fun of just how frickin happy the Finns are. Oh, geez, I can't afford this.

[Olivia Humphries]

No, it's all free.

[Tanya Vattikari]

Free.

[Roman Mars]

Who are you people?

[Olivia Humphries]

Well, in Finland, we're not only experts at nuclear power, but. But for six years in a row, we've been the happiest people in the world. Makes sense. You live so close to Santa Claus.

[Roman Mars]

But there's more to the baby box than a nice perk for the happiest parents in the world. Its almost 90 years of existence, the Finnish baby box has been a basic survival tool, a national symbol and a rite of passage.

[Olivia Humphries]

So how did a simple cardboard box become so filled with meaning? To find out, we're going to take a peek inside the cutest little social engineering tool in the world.

[Michelle Miller Fischer]

So the story of the baby box begins in Finland in the late 1930s, and Finland wasn't in such great shape.

[Olivia Humphries]

That's design historian Michelle Miller Fischer. She told me that when the first baby box came out, Finland was almost unrecognisable.

[Michelle Miller Fischer]

The birth rate was declining, many babies that were born were in ill health, and there was quite a high rate

[Olivia Humphries]

of infant mortality in the early decades of the 20th century. Most Finns were extremely poor. Finland had recently emerged from a brutal civil war, and revolutions in neighboring Russia meant it had also lost its biggest trading partner.

[Roman Mars]

Since most of the grain in Finland came from Russia, that loss meant that many people were left starving. Finns were living in crowded, unsanitary conditions and dying from outbreaks of tuberculosis, smallpox and measles.

[Olivia Humphries]

Child mortality in Finland was also higher than in the rest of Europe. Almost 20% of children didn't make it to their fifth birthday.

[Michelle Miller Fischer]

And so the Finnish Social Welfare Committee decided that maybe they could design something that would help in part to change this. And that policy intervention looked like, in the end, a set of designed objects within a box.

[Roman Mars]

The idea of distributing critical items to new mothers wasn't an entirely original one. Since the 1920s, a Finnish charity had been lending out battleships of baby essentials to the poorest families in Finland.

[Olivia Humphries]

The baskets contained clean baby clothes hand sewn by volunteers from donated bits of fabric. At the time, it was pretty common for mothers to swaddle their newborns in old rags, and this gave them an alternative. Once the baby grew out of the clothes, the basket was passed on to the next family who needed it.

[Roman Mars]

The government used the baskets as a blueprint for something more ambitious. They kept the clean clothes and added basic hygiene items like soap and towels to help slow the spread of disease. And instead of loaning it out, they decided to make the box a gift that families could keep.

[Olivia Humphries]

In 1938, they started giving these new packages out to struggling families, not in a basket, but in a cardboard box, a box that doubled as a crib.

[Anina Kuka]

It has been from the day one that you could put your baby to sleep in the box.

[Olivia Humphries]

That's Anina Kuka. She works for Kelle, the Finnish Social Security agency.

[Anina Kuka]

Actually, in the early days, the families were poor and their houses were small. There wasn't necessarily a safe and clean place to put the baby to sleep. So that's why it was quite important.

[Roman Mars]

When World War II broke out just one year later, Finland didn't have fabric to spare for the baby boxes. So the designers had to get creative.

[Michelle Miller Fischer]

During the moment of the war years in the 1940s, because of restrictions on materials and because of thrift, some of the clothes were paper rather than fabric.

[Olivia Humphries]

Clean paper clothes were still better than old rags, and a simple sheet of paper could make a big difference during childbirth.

[Michelle Miller Fischer]

In some of the very early baby boxes, there was also the sheet of paper to give birth on, to be able to create an immediate sterile birthing environment in a very low cost but very effective manner.

[Roman Mars]

When the war ended, Finnish mothers could thankfully put aside their paper baby clothes. Post war boxes included fabric and yarn, so moms could simply use all their free time to sew or knit the clothes themselves.

[Olivia Humphries]

Around this time, Finland also made a change that would become a key feature of the baby box. In 1949, they made the box a universal benefit.

[Michelle Miller Fischer]

It was initially given out to people who needed it, and very quickly from the 1940s became given to anybody, everybody. It became a citizen's right in Finland.

[Olivia Humphries]

Most of us are probably familiar with the Nordic countries and their universal welfare programs. Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland all provide stronger social support than most other countries in the world. And in Finland, the baby box was one of the first Building blocks in creating that system.

[Roman Mars]

The Finnish welfare state as we know it began in the aftermath of World War II. Finland, like the rest of Europe, was still recovering from the devastation of war. People had come back from the brink of the end of the world, and across the continent, they were asking themselves, what do we want? What do we value now that we have a chance to make a new world?

[Olivia Humphries]

In Finland, one of the strongest new convictions was that families, all families, should have support. Some of the earliest universal policies were focused on child rearing, free school meals, quarterly child payments, and new maternal health clinics opening all over the country.

[Roman Mars]

The baby box was actually one way to incentivize pregnant women to use those new health clinics.

[Anina Kuka]

In order to get the box, they would have to attend the maternity and welfare clinics and to get their health checked when they were expecting a baby.

[Roman Mars]

The lure of the baby box seems to have worked. By the early 1950s, more than 90% of mothers had registered themselves at the new clinics.

[Olivia Humphries]

Almost 80 years later, the deal is basically the same. If you visit a prenatal clinic in the first four months of pregnancy, you get the box.

[Roman Mars]

What's inside the box, though, changes every year.

[Olivia Humphries]

Should we start with the oldest box? I visited the office of Keller, the government agency responsible for the box. They've got 40 years worth of boxes stored away in their warehouse. So this is from 1994, so more than 30 years old. This is the snow seat. It's very 90s.

[Anina Kuka]

Yeah. The patterns.

[Olivia Humphries]

Patterns and fabrics. Lime green stripes and fluorescent yellow.

[Anina Kuka]

Yeah, it's very 90s.

[Roman Mars]

Today, Anina and her colleague Vera are responsible for deciding what each year's baby box will include. And it's a lot of pressure. Every item they pick out, be it a koala sleeping bag or a dinosaur toothbrush, will be used by thousands of families in thousands of homes all across Finland.

[Olivia Humphries]

The process of making those decisions actually begins two years before the box is set to release, when they meet with a group of advisors.

[Roman Mars]

The group is essentially a justice league of baby stuff experts. There's a representative from the maternity and child welfare clinics, another from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, one from the Ministry of Social affairs and Health, which sounds like the same words just rearranged.

[Anina Kuka]

And also from the Finnish Safety and Chemical Agency, there's this person who we can consult about the safety issues for the items in the package. So we have these discussions about the items, which to include or what are we planning to choose when it comes

[Roman Mars]

to making the final call about what's in each year's Box. Finnish law says that all items need to, quote, provide for the health and well being of mother and child. And most of the time, the connection between item and well being is obvious.

[Olivia Humphries]

It would be hard to make an argument against putting in a bath thermometer, say, or a teething toy. But other times the connection is less about need and more about encouraging certain behaviors.

[Roman Mars]

The box has always been about subtly influencing people's decisions. Remember when the baby box first became a universal benefit, it was because the Finnish government wanted mothers to start going to health clinics for prenatal exams.

[Olivia Humphries]

And so, despite the box's popularity, it's always carried a degree of tension between the preferences of individuals and the goals of the state. Here's Michelle Miller Fisher again.

[Michelle Miller Fischer]

The baby box for me is this shining example of a welfare state done right. And yet, almost every object that is designed for the arc of human reproduction

[Olivia Humphries]

is fraught with politics. Take, for example, one item you won't find in your box, a baby bottle. That's because Finland strongly recommends breastfeeding for the first four to six months. A bottle in that case would be unnecessary.

[Roman Mars]

Another item where you can see the Finnish government trying to shape behavior is the condoms they included in the 1970s. That's when the Finnish government basically said, we think family planning is part of a healthy life for everyone. Here's a way you can make a decision about whether or not you want to get pregnant again right now.

[Olivia Humphries]

Not everyone appreciated the hint. Here's Tanya Vattikari, professor of history at Tampere University.

[Tanya Vattikari]

Many saw or understood that this would be a good idea. Those who again thought that the state should not be interfering in those kinds of ways into the family's lives.

[Olivia Humphries]

It's an issue that also came up with nappies or diapers. Early boxes included pieces of fabric that could be folded into diapers. But when the disposable kind got popular in the 1960s, those went into the baby box instead.

[Roman Mars]

That is, until 2006, when experts decided it would be better for the environment to switch back to cloth diapers.

[Tanya Vattikari]

And people were very strongly either for or against. Many people thought that these reusable diapers being in the box was the kind of ideological message on part of the state that people should be using these types of nappies more, which was of course true. That was the idea.

[Olivia Humphries]

So was there a sense of resentment at all, or if people feeling they were being nudged too much?

[Tanya Vattikari]

Yes, there was. There was exactly that. That they were pushed towards something they did not want to adopt.

[Olivia Humphries]

In the end, this particular Nudge didn't work. Andina said that the majority of parents reported not using the cloth diapers. So just a few years later they were out again.

[Roman Mars]

The Finnish Social Security agency Kela puts out a survey so that parents can directly voice their opinions about what's in the box. But Anina says that a lot of those discussions play out on Internet forums.

[Anina Kuka]

There's a lot of online discussions about the items in the box and they sometimes fight also about the items.

[Olivia Humphries]

A couple of years ago, a blanket wasn't included and there was an uproar. It had to be brought back by popular demand. So Anina and her colleagues have found little ways to let parents feel like they have more of a say.

[Anina Kuka]

Yeah, actually we have had, since 2020, we have had this opportunity for our clients to vote which patterns to choose for the overall and for their sleeping bag.

[Olivia Humphries]

And do people, do a lot of people vote?

[Anina Kuka]

I think last time it was like 10,000 or something like that, so quite many.

[Olivia Humphries]

Something I kept thinking about while reporting this story is that the box came about at a time when Finns were poor and infant mortality was a big problem. Now Finland is consistently ranked among nations with the lowest infant mortality. It's also frequently named as the best country in the world to be a parent.

[Roman Mars]

That's partly because of the whole comprehensive package of social support that Finland gives families. Finnish parents have universal healthcare, heavily subsidized childcare and generous parental leave. But it's also because the box did its job. So does that mean the baby box has outlived its usefulness?

[Olivia Humphries]

What would be the reaction if, do you think, if the government took away the. The baby box?

[Anina Kuka]

It makes people feel a lot of feelings. So I think they would be quite angry if they would stop it.

[Olivia Humphries]

It's beloved.

[Anina Kuka]

Yes, it's beloved.

[Olivia Humphries]

Parents actually have a choice about whether or not they take the baby box or a cash alternative.

[Anina Kuka]

At this moment, it's €210 cash or the.

[Olivia Humphries]

But most people choose the box.

[Anina Kuka]

Almost all first time mothers choose the box.

[Roman Mars]

And just like in the early days, many still use that simple cardboard box as a crib. Almost half of Finnish babies at some point sleep in the box.

[Olivia Humphries]

Collecting and unpacking the box has become a rite of passage in Finland. Future grandparents and even great grandparents might come over to pore over the contents and reminisce over what they received in their boxes. It's very common to find old baby boxes in finished garages and attics filled with favorite items from the box waiting to be taken out for the Next generation.

[Roman Mars]

Another reason the baby box remains a constant in finished life is the way it lifts the mental load of being a new parent. The box is simple and curated, telling you exactly what you need in order to care for a baby and what you don't.

[Olivia Humphries]

Having a newborn is tough. Any parent will remember feeling disorientated, anxious and desperate for sleep. All of which makes you the perfect target for advertisers hawking miracle products.

[Michelle Miller Fischer]

If you don't have this, your baby won't be safe, or they won't be healthy, or they won't be smart, etc. I mean, obviously we live in a capitalist society. This is the way in which parents are turned into a demographic or a space of marketing and consumption.

[Olivia Humphries]

I've seen ads for an intravaginal speaker to encourage language development while still in the womb. And pillows shaped like giant hands so your baby feels like they're being held as they sleep. It's so easy to laugh at these products when you're not in the depths of life with a newborn. But at the time, I'd have paid a lot of money for something that guaranteed me a tiny bit more sleep, or the chance to go to the bathroom on my own, or five minutes to drink a hot cup of coffee. In the haze of those early days, it's so hard to tell what you actually need. I spoke about this with a Finnish mother named Mary when she was pregnant. A friend, not from Finland had helpfully sent her a spreadsheet with everything they'd suggest a new parent buys.

[Mary (Finnish mother)]

And it was so long. Of all the possible things that you could need, from clothes to what kind of bathtub, to little silver nipple cups that you can, you can wear so that when you're breastfeeding, you're to help with the pain of that. And I was glad that I didn't really have to think about that. I could know that all the. All the main things were already thought of. And I guess there's the message as well. If your baby is sleeping in a box that you know, that's fine, you know, you don't need. Fancy things like these are the basics that you really need.

[Olivia Humphries]

But even more important than the practical benefit to parents is what the baby box stands for. 80 plus years after it helped build the foundation of the Finnish welfare system, the box is still inseparable from the culture it helped create.

[Mary (Finnish mother)]

The kind of idea that everyone gets the same start to life, I think is important for Finnish people.

[Roman Mars]

The baby box creates a sort of visual equality. There's no stigma in Using the items from the box, because everybody does really. It can actually be a problem picking out which child is yours when they're all running around in their identical snowsuits

[Mary (Finnish mother)]

and you kind of know that they're probably around the same age as your baby because they're wearing the same stuff. There is something about, definitely something about the shared experience that, you know, everyone in Finland will have gone through of getting this box and using the same things and knowing that everyone's getting kind of quality items.

[Olivia Humphries]

There are really few more powerful equalizers than having everyone start life sleeping in an identical cardboard box. And I can't help but feel a little awe that this program that started so many years ago has persisted all this time.

[Roman Mars]

The current right wing government is making deep cuts to everything from housing support, unemployment benefits, health care and child benefits. But no one from any political party is seriously talking about getting rid of the box. It is just too much of an icon.

[Michelle Miller Fischer]

There's something incredibly beautiful about looking at a society, looking at this promise that a government makes to itself people that it takes from its taxes. So it's a people making this promise to themselves as well that we will provide for the newest, the most vulnerable, the tiniest, the most promising people in our society because it's paying it forward, but it's also paying it back to ourselves. It's investing in this larger social compact or social agreement that we have with one another.

[Roman Mars]

The concept of baby boxes is now spread across the world. There are versions of the box in Chile, South Africa, Canada and Scotland.

[Olivia Humphries]

Michelle actually received a Scottish box. It's full of what one of her mentors called humble masterpieces. Everyday objects that seem unremarkable but are nonetheless worthy of celebration.

[Michelle Miller Fischer]

I love the sling that is in there. So there's a. Just a long. It's not a constructed sling. It's just a long piece of fabric. Several yards of very stretchy gray, heather gray fabric.

[Olivia Humphries]

In one of Michelle's earliest pictures of her daughter, March. She's just a few days old and she's being carried in that sling by her dad, Austin.

[Michelle Miller Fischer]

It took us, we did seven rounds of IVF to have our daughter and it was the only pregnancy that actually worked. And so we waited years to have her. And this picture that I have of Austin, he just. He looks so happy. It's making me feel emotional even now because it's just so special.

[Olivia Humphries]

This is the paradox of the baby box. It's full of practical items, boring items even. But that box and all its mundane contents connect you to the most profound moments of your life. And in Finland, to generations of parents before you, all of them tucking their newborn children into the humble masterpiece of a simple cardboard box.

[Roman Mars]

After the break, Olivia Humphries takes us on a tour of baby boxes around the world. Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move. Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. And Claude doesn't just give you answers. It helps you think through the problem and amplifies what you're already curious about. Create your personal command center by connecting Claude to your calendar, emails and tools like GitHub, Jira and Google Workspace. Save time by delegating tasks. Claude can run automated security reviews for your pull requests and fix vulnerabilities. So I wanted to buy this one room cabin that I had my eye on and it had been on the market for years and years and it also had, you know, some things that needed to be fixed and it was in a weird market and I kind of didn't know where to start in terms of my negotiation. So I asked Claude, here's the list price, here's the location, here are the issues with the place. What should be my opening offer. And it broke down all the sort of logic of things and presented a range of what I should offer without insulting the seller and ended up that offer got accepted and I bought the place. For problems worth solving, get started with Claude at Claude AI. That's Claude AI.

[Olivia Humphries]

What are you sending us? This is a fun one.

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[Roman Mars]

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[Olivia Humphries]

We've seen a lot of strange new worlds, but we'll never see something like this.

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[Roman Mars]

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[Roman Mars]

We're back with Olivia Humphries. Hey, Olivia.

[Olivia Humphries]

Hey, Roman. How are you doing?

[Roman Mars]

I'm good, I'm good. So at the end of the story, you mentioned that there are baby box projects in other parts of the world too.

[Olivia Humphries]

Yeah. So for decades, the Finnish baby box was really the only game in town. But in the last 20 years or so, that's changed. I spoke to Dr. Anarina Koivu, who's a researcher at Tampara University in Finland, and she did the first global study that maps baby box biology projects around the world. She said she and her co authors were kind of amazed at how far and wide that idea of the baby box had spread.

[Researcher / Expert]

We were really surprised, and it was also a lovely surprise. We found over 90 projects all around the world, in about 60 countries. Places like Papua New guinea, there were several in Africa, Latin America and also Southeast Asia and so on.

[Olivia Humphries]

So there have now been baby box schemes on every continent except Antarctica.

[Roman Mars]

Slacking. But are all these baby boxes like universal programs like the Finnish one?

[Olivia Humphries]

Actually, there's only two other countries where all pregnant women in the nation are eligible to get a box, and that's Chile and Scotland. Some of the other projects are for pregnant women in a particular geographical area, in a state or in a city, for instance. And then others are even more targeted to the people who need it.

[Researcher / Expert]

Very specific vulnerable groups like first time moms. Sometimes these are low income moms, women in jail, refugee moms, or HIV positive moms.

[Roman Mars]

And this is more like the original Finnish baby Boxes like this is support going for the people who need the most support.

[Olivia Humphries]

Right. But unlike in Finland, most of these programs aren't actually run by the state. Some of them are, but the vast majority are run by research groups or hospitals, NGOs, non profits or private parties, or by United nations agencies like unicef.

[Roman Mars]

And how similar are the boxes themselves to the finished ones?

[Olivia Humphries]

Obviously, these boxes are being used in totally different contexts, and so they have been adapted a lot, which is kind of the beauty of the baby box. I think it's such a flexible idea. In fact, one of the things that Annarina learned is that in some places the box isn't even a box.

[Researcher / Expert]

We talk about baby box because it's a sort of a common name that is often used. But not all baby boxes are boxes, and not all baby boxes should be boxes either, because it's very important that the baby box is appropriate for that context.

[Olivia Humphries]

So one of those instances where a cardboard box just didn't make sense was in South Africa. The box there was designed for mothers in a poor settlement, and a cardboard box was just not robust enough to work in that context, where there are insects and rats and it's very humid.

[Researcher / Expert]

So they decided that it makes more sense to put the items in a bathtub, and that bathtub was used then for washing the baby.

[Olivia Humphries]

A plastic baby bath also made sense because in South Africa it's the norm for parents to co sleep with babies. So the project designers thought a bathtub would get more use than a crib. And then in other places, boxes weren't used because they had negative connotations in that culture.

[Researcher / Expert]

For instance, in Malawian culture, where they first sort of considered a cardbox that was not supported by the mothers because it resembled a coffin. So it was not a good choice for a baby box, and the program opted for a baby basket instead.

[Roman Mars]

That makes complete sense. So you have baskets, you have bathtubs, what else do you have?

[Olivia Humphries]

So even if they didn't go with the box, a lot of the projects borrowed that idea from Finland of the container having its own use. So there have been buckets for washing clothes in bags that can double up as a kind of sling bamboo rocking cradles in India.

[Roman Mars]

And in terms of what's inside the box or the basket or the bucket, like, presumably that changes a lot too, depending on the environment.

[Olivia Humphries]

I mean, some of it is the same. There's usually some basic hygiene items like soap, lots of clothes, obviously appropriate for the climate. So you don't get many insulated mittens in Sub Saharan Africa, like you do in Finland. But if it's an area where, say, malaria or Zika are prevalent, then boxes might include a mosquito net. Or if the mother can't access a hospital very easily, then there might be items to make delivery at home safer, like a sterile razor blade to cut the umbilical cord or a plastic sheet to give birth on.

[Roman Mars]

I mean, this is kind of the equivalent of the paper sheet from the early finish baby boxes.

[Olivia Humphries]

Exactly.

[Researcher / Expert]

Yes.

[Roman Mars]

Yeah.

[Researcher / Expert]

Yeah.

[Roman Mars]

And are there conditions with giving getting these other boxes in other countries? Like in Finland, you mentioned that they have to attend a prenatal appointment. Is the same for other projects.

[Olivia Humphries]

Yeah. The baby boxes almost always come with strings attached. And that's kind of the point of a lot of these programs. They're trying to get babies into the healthcare system. So in Zambia, for instance, you can't get the box unless you give birth at a healthcare facility. And in Mexico, you can only get the box once you've registered your baby's birthday.

[Roman Mars]

And so which country is most like the classic Finnish baby box?

[Olivia Humphries]

Probably Scotland. The scheme's been going there for about a decade and it's been really popular ever since it started. Take up's been around 90%. So that's roughly the same as Finland.

[Roman Mars]

Yeah.

[Olivia Humphries]

But when it was first brought in, there was some controversy, particularly around that idea of babies sleeping in cardboard boxes.

[Roman Mars]

Okay, yeah. What happened?

[Olivia Humphries]

Well, the right leaning Scottish sun newspaper tried to turn public feeling against it. They actually made a video, which they've now deleted, where they set fire to the box to show that it was flammable.

[Roman Mars]

They wanted to demonstrate on YouTube that a cardboard box was flammable.

[Olivia Humphries]

Yeah. And actually, because the box is made from this kind of heavy duty corrugated cardboard, it actually took seven minutes of concerted effort with a lighter to set it on fire. So it wasn't quite the gotcha that they were looking for.

[Mary (Finnish mother)]

Yeah.

[Roman Mars]

And obviously it didn't have much effect if 90% of people are taking the boxes.

[Olivia Humphries]

Yeah. And they also weren't convinced about the boxes not being safe to sleep in. So about 40% of people use it for babies to sleep in, just like in Finland.

[Roman Mars]

So you mentioned that new boxes and new box programs are cropping up all the time. What's the latest place to get a baby box or have a program like this in the works?

[Olivia Humphries]

So New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani had a proposal for baby baskets for all newborns in the city as part of his campaign last year.

[Roman Mars]

That sounds like him.

[Researcher / Expert]

Yeah.

[Olivia Humphries]

And Wales actually has just Started a government funded program as well, but at the moment it's only for babies who are in the most deprived parts of the country. And the response really highlights one of the problems with these targeted projects, which is that people are saying anecdotally that they might not use the clothes that are in the box because they feel like there's a stigma attached. So it's kind of the opposite of that feeling of togetherness and belonging that people in Finland describe.

[Roman Mars]

And for people who are listening who, like, really want to get their hands on a baby box, like, this all sounds great, but they don't live in New York or Wales or Scotland or Chile and all these fantastic places. Do you have advice for them?

[Olivia Humphries]

So Keller, who are the government department who are responsible for giving out the box in Finland, they get emails all the time, they say, from people who would love to pay for a box, but it's illegal for Keller to sell the box because it's estate benefits.

[Roman Mars]

Right. It's just like it's illegal for me to listen to BBC sounds in the United States.

[Olivia Humphries]

Yeah, Sorry about that. But inevitably, some canny entrepreneurs have spotted that there's a gap in the market and they've started selling commercial baby boxes. One of the first companies doing that was founded by three Finnish dads, and they just started off pretty much including what was in the Keller boxes. But then they started getting feedback from customers in Australia who didn't have much use for the snowsuit, and they switched it so that you'd get different stuff depending on where in the world you are.

[Roman Mars]

Yeah. So it's complicated to make an internationally appropriate box. Yeah, yeah. So they're not exactly flying off shelves.

[Olivia Humphries]

Not really. One issue is that in the United states, back in 2021, it became illegal to sell a cardboard box marketed as a sleeping space for a baby because it was decided it just didn't meet safety guidelines. But even in other parts of the world, a lot of the businesses who sell these boxes seem to have gone bust after a few years. And obviously, I don't know why that's happened exactly, but I do wonder if the appeal of the box is really that sense of being cared for and being part of something and that's what people want a piece of. And you just don't get that feeling from a box that's been sold to you by a commercial company. It just loses a lot of the magic. And it's just kind of a cardboard box full of clothes that you didn't choose.

[Roman Mars]

Yeah. This is so much fun. Thank you. So much for doing the story for us.

[Olivia Humphries]

It's been such a pleasure. Thank you. Roman.

[Roman Mars]

99% Invisible was reported this week by Olivia Humphries, Edited by Kelly Prime Mix by Martin Gonzalez, Music by Swan Rial and George Langford Fact Checking by Graham Hecher Special thanks this week to Pia Vorkoski as well as Mary's mom Tina. Kathy Tu is our Executive producer. Kurt Kohlstedt is the Digital director. Delaney hall is our Senior editor. The rest of the team includes Chris Berube, Jason De Leon, Emmett Fitzgerald, Christopher Johnson, Vivian Leigh Lasha, Madonn, Joe Rosenberg, Jacob Medina Gleason Talon and Rayne Stradley and me, roman Mars. The 99% invisible logo was created by Stefan Lawrence. We are part of the Sirius XM podcast family now, headquartered six blocks north in in the Pandora Building in beautiful uptown Oakland, California. You can find us on all the usual social media sites as well as our own Discord server. There's a link to that as well as every past episode of 99pi and 99pi.org.

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[Olivia Humphries]

Good morning, students. Soccer teaches us teamwork, leadership, geometry, art, physics and a lifetime of lessons we can take with us long after we leave the field. That's why bank of America and US Soccer are committed to helping bring soccer to every school. Soccer is officially in session. Raise your hand to help bring soccer to [e-mail] soccer at schools there's a

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[Mary (Finnish mother)]

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