For more than 80 years, the Finnish state has been giving a special box to expectant parents. The maternity package, or baby box, is a starter kit to help care for a newborn, with necessities ranging from clothes and toys to other child-care products.
The Finnish innovation has attracted widespread attention abroad. The baby box concept has already been exported to 60 countries, which have introduced their own versions of the package's contents.
The corrugated box that contains the maternity package is recyclable, renewable and made of Finnish wood fiber. It was designed and is manufactured at Stora Enso's Lahti Mill. The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) distributes 40 000 maternity packages in Finland every year.
The maternity package was developed to increase the well-being of the newborn and mothers, promote health, reduce inequality and alleviate the financial burden on families. The Maternity Allowance Act was enacted in 1937, and the distribution of allowances began the following year. The grant was first intended for low-income mothers. The background was concern about declining birth rates and high infant mortality. Today, the maternity allowance is a social security benefit available to all parents.
In 2021, more and more emphasis is being put on sustainability of the contents of the maternity package. The package includes baby clothes and care products. The product range remains largely the same from year to year, but the colours and patterns of textiles, for example, vary. The 2021 package contains a total of 50 products.
Versatile and renewable packaging full of memories
For many Finns, the box and its contents bring back a lot of emotions and memories. The goods and textiles in the package may serve for decades after the baby has grown up. Patterns and colours have been etched into the memory of generations.
The corrugated box itself can be used as a baby bed, for example. As the baby grows, the beautiful box can continue its life in a variety of uses, for example in children’s games. It can also serve as a storage box for photos or other childhood memories. Finally, the box can be recycled in cardboard collection. Corrugated board can be recycled 5–7 times.
The story of Stora Enso and the baby box goes back a long way, as far back as the 1960s. Heino Partanen, a packaging designer at the then Enso Gutzeit mill in Lahti, designed a corrugated and multi-purpose box for maternity packaging that was sturdy, flat and easy to assemble. The print has improved, and the number of colours has increased with the development of printing technology.
Lahti Mill has been making boxes for several decades since then. This year's box was designed by Ilona Partanen. The name of the design is Blueberry Milk, and it has been inspired by summer, happiness and the artist’s own childhood.
www.storaenso.com
