This could be a much larger discussion and probably better suited for another forum; however, there is a big distinction between co-sleeping and bed-sharing. Long story short: Bed-sharing means sharing the same sleeping surface, such as a family bed, with your baby. Co-sleeping means sleeping in close proximity to your baby, sometimes on the same surface and sometimes not (in other words, bed-sharing is one way to co-sleep, but not the only way).
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends room sharing because it can decrease the risk of SIDS by as much as 50% and is much safer than bed sharing. In addition, room sharing will make it easier for you to feed, comfort, and watch your baby.
The AAP goes on to say: Bed-sharing is not recommended for any babies. However, certain situations make bed-sharing even more dangerous. Therefore, you should not bed share with your baby if:
* Your baby is younger than 4 months old.
* Your baby was born prematurely or with low birth weight.
* You or any other person in the bed is a smoker (even if you do not smoke in bed).
* The mother of the baby smoked during pregnancy.
* You have taken any medicines or drugs that might make it harder for you to wake up.
* You drank any alcohol.
* You are not the baby's parent.
* The surface is soft, such as a waterbed, old mattress, sofa, couch, or armchair.
* There is soft bedding like pillows or blankets on the bed.
With that being said, bed sharing is common in certain cultures where the prevalence of SIDS is low, including Asian communities (Japan, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, and those in UK) and Pacific Islander communities in New Zealand. Actually, it is not the bed sharing that distinguishes these cultures, but other factors (e.g., smoking and use of alcohol/drugs) which in conjunction with cosleeping may put infants at risk. However, there is conflicting evidence regarding the safety and efficacy of bed sharing during infancy—while it has been shown to facilitate breastfeeding and provide protection against hypothermia, it has been identified as a risk factor for SIDS.
Finally, to answer your question: breast feeding and bed-sharing are often linked. Having a lightweight bassinet, such as a baby box, decreases the practice of bed-sharing and thus decreases the risk of SIDS.
Not exactly. Although we do supply healthcare organizations and government entities domestically and abroad, we are not the suppliers for Finland. The Finnish baby box program is conducted by Kela, a Finnish government agency in charge of settling benefits under national social security programs. Unfortunately, they took some heat earlier this year for their labor practices to make some of the products they include in their baby boxes (https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/finnwatch_majority_of_fin...).
From what I understand, the company Finnish Baby Box (based in Finland) uses the same products from the same suppliers and makes those same boxes available to consumer.
Finnbin, the company I founded, manufactures our own boxes and sources the materials for our box from US-based companies who utililze managed forestries and are certified to Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) standards, created to promote responsible forest management.
And, although the original Finnish government program was the inspiration for our product, we've tailored our product offering to the American consumer and with American brands. For example, the Finnish baby box contains a regular sheet rather than a fitted sheet. This would not adhere to the American Academy of Pediatrics safe sleep recommendations. Therefore, we include a fitted sheet custom to the waterproof mattress we provide.
Additionally, much of the clothing in the Finnish government boxes program is designed for a much colder climate than we're used to here in the US. Rather than including similar products that many people wouldn't likely use, we've replaced them with more universal clothing and products.
It is true that there are not many published studies with empirical evidence in the public domain and most of the data comes from 90 years of anecdotal evidence; however, the issue is not that baby box manufacturers are against studies, it's that there is not a lot of funding for SIDS research. We've actively reached out to research organizations to test our product, but they do not have the financial resources to do so.
That said, there have since been some published studies about the efficacy of baby boxes (here is one from Temple University: https://medicine.temple.edu/news/temple-study-shows-baby-box...). There are also some ongoing studies that I'm aware of that have yet to be published. Here are the findings from the Temple study:
5,187 dyads received baby boxes and follow up phone calls 2763 parents completed the follow-up survey Patient satisfaction with the distribution of the bassinet was high.
25% reduction in bed-sharing for all infants. Face-to-face sleep education and providing a baby box with a firm mattress and fitted sheet reduced the rate of bed-sharing by 25% in the first eight days of life.
50% reduction in bed-sharing for breastfed infants.For exclusively breastfed infants, a population at increased risk of bed-sharing, bed-sharing was reduced by 50%.
Mothers use the baby box. Of the mothers who received the baby box, a majority said they used the box as a sleeping place for their infants.
12% of mothers use the baby box as a primary sleep space. Of the mothers who received the baby box, 12% said they used the box as the primary or usual sleeping space for their infants.
Looking specifically at the breastfed infant population (breastfeeding has been shown to reduce the risk of SUIDS but also increase bed-sharing):
92% (184/199) of the breastfeeding respondents used the bassinet;
52% (104/199) used the bassinet as a sleeping space; and 11% used the bassinet as the primary sleeping space.
Of the 104 recipients who used the bassinet as a sleeping space, 63 (60%) responded the bassinet makes breastfeeding easier.
In the present study, a majority of bassinet recipients used it as an infant sleeping space. A majority of exclusively breastfeeding mothers reported that the cardboard bassinet facilitated breastfeeding.
To answer your comment & questions: The reason our most expensive box (The Finland Original) costs $450 is because it contains over $700 worth of stuff - at least on the shelf if you are purchasing each item individually. For a bit more insight, the bulk of that cost is the organic clothing that we include. Also, baby boxes have a lot of volume (or dimensional weight if you want to use the shipping jargon) so baby boxes are incredibly expensive to ship. Because most consumers would be shocked at the actual cost of shipping, we've factored shipping costs into the total cost of the box.
To answer your question about what the government pays for these: Finnbin does have contracts with hospitals, insurance companies, and government entities who typically purchase hundreds boxes at a time and often thousands - The average metro hospital does about 1,500 births per year. Like any other product, volume orders obviously get a price break and because baby boxes take up so much space, they also tend to receive the boxes on a pallet shipped flat - which can also lower their costs. Each government order is slightly different and thus there is no specific cost to a government entity, but they still pay in the hundreds of dollars if they are purchasing the baby box containing all of the goods.
Happy to provide additional insight if you'd like.
If this topic is at all interesting to you, you should read Steven Brill's dissertation in TIME titled "Better Pill" from a few months ago. Since TIME has a paywall, here is a link to the PDF of the article: