A third London hospital is issuing Finnish-style baby boxes to encourage new parents to put their babies in them to sleep to reduce the rate of sudden infant death.
The Whittington, in Archway, is handing out the boxes with a promise that all new parents, rich or poor, will be entitled to receive them.
They are given a box after enrolling with the provider company’s online “university”, which uses video clips to teach safe-sleeping techniques.
It follows the first increase in almost a decade in the number of babies under one dying in England and Wales — 2,578 deaths in 2015.
The boxes, provided free by the US-based Baby Box Company, were launched at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea hospital in Acton last June.
They are also available at North Middlesex hospital, Edmonton.
The baby box tradition has been credited with helping to reduce the infant mortality rate in Finland from 65 infant deaths per 1,000 births in 1938 to 2.26 per 1,000 births in 2015.
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