芬蘭寶寶爲什麼睡在紙箱裏

At a glance, it seems a strange place to put a newborn: a bit of bedding and a miniature sleeping bag arranged in a cardboard box.

乍看上去，用這個東西來放新生嬰兒似乎有點奇怪：一個硬紙箱，裏面有牀上用品，以及一個小睡袋。

Even so, that’s the first place that many Finnish infants lay their little heads. And the simple setup is believed to be one reason that Finland now has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world — 2.52 for every 1,000 births, less than half that of the United States.

即便如此，這就是很多芬蘭嬰兒最初睡覺的地方。這種簡單的安排，被認爲是芬蘭擁有全世界最低的嬰兒死亡率的原因之一。在芬蘭，每1000個新生嬰兒中有2.52個死亡，不到美國的一半。

Finland provides all mothers-to-be with a baby box, but there’s a string attached. To receive it, the mother has to undergo a medical exam during the first four months of pregnancy.

芬蘭向所有的準媽媽發放一個嬰兒箱，但有個條件：準媽媽們必須在懷孕的頭四個月接受體檢。

Each year the government gives away about 40,000 of the boxes, which come with bedding and about 50 other baby items, including clothes, socks, a warm coat and even a baby balaclava for the icy Nordic winter. (Mothers who don’t need all those items can choose to get 140 euros instead, or about $155.)

政府每年贈送約4萬個箱子給準媽媽們，其中包括牀上用品以及約50件其他嬰兒用品，包括衣服、襪子、保暖外套，甚至還有可以應付北歐寒冬的嬰兒頭套。（如果準媽媽不需要這些東西，可以選擇直接領取140歐元，約合人民幣1000元）。

The program started in the late 1930s, when nearly one of out 10 infants in Finland died in their first year. The boxes were a low-cost way to encourage women to set aside old habits and see a doctor during pregnancy. They also provided a safe place outside of parents’ beds for infants to sleep, in homes that might have only rudimentary furniture.

這個項目開始於上世紀30年代後期，當時在芬蘭出生的嬰兒中，差不多有十分之一會在第一年內夭折。嬰兒箱可以鼓勵女性放下舊習慣，在懷孕期間去看醫生，而且這麼做的成本也不高。此外，嬰兒也可以在這個箱子裏安全地睡覺，不用擠在父母的牀上，因爲有些家庭可能只有最基本的傢俱。

Finland also offers considerable protection for the baby’s parents: up to 10 months’ paid leave, and a guarantee that whoever stays home with a child can return to his or her job any time before the child turns 3.

芬蘭還爲嬰兒的父母提供了很好的保障︰長達10個月的帶薪假，並保證在家帶孩子的家長可以在孩子3歲前的任何時間重返工作崗位。

There are efforts to extend the baby-box idea to a wider audience. A hospital in London recently began giving out the boxes on a trial basis. In Minnesota, a nonprofit group distributed the boxes to low-income families, inspiring a proposal being debated by state lawmakers. A graduate student at Harvard formed an organization to distribute similar kits in South Asia.

有些人希望把嬰兒箱的做法推廣給更多人。倫敦一家醫院最近開始進行嬰兒箱發放試點。在明尼蘇達州，一個非營利組織向低收入家庭分發嬰兒箱，並催生一項提案，在州議會進行了辯論。一名哈佛大學研究生成立了一個組織，在南亞地區分發類似的套件。

“When you move abroad, you realize that, wow, not every place has a baby box,” said Sanna Kangasharju, who works in the Finnish Embassy in Washington.

“當你搬到國外時，你意識到，哇，不是每個地方都有嬰兒箱，”在芬蘭駐華盛頓大使館工作的桑娜·坎阿斯哈勒尤(Sanna Kangasharju)說。

“It’s a very efficient system.”

“這是一個非常高效的系統。”