Alaska's largest maternity center begins offering free 'baby boxes' to new parents

Moms giving birth at Alaska's largest maternity center now get to go home with a free goodie box that could potentially prove life-saving.

Providence Alaska Medical Center in partnership with Premera Blue Cross began offering the 2-foot-long, 1-foot-wide "safe sleep" cardboard baby boxes to new parents at the end of May.

The project is currently in its pilot phase, according to Premera spokeswoman Melanie Coon. She said it will run until the end of August or whenever the hospital has distributed all of its 800 boxes.

The sturdy box comes covered in a print of cartoon baby Alaska animals and includes a firm foam mattress with a waterproof cover, several onesies, baby wipes and a newborn-sized "sleep sack." The box is based on one in a Finnish government program that began in the 1930s and is thought to have contributed to the country's low infant mortality rates.

Providence is the first hospital in Anchorage to offer the program but it's not the first in the state. Ketchikan has been giving out similar boxes for more than a year. In February, Juneau's Bartlett Regional Hospital began distributing boxes.

Providence and Premera are waiting to see if the program has applications in Alaska's largest city. The Providence maternity center is the largest in the state, delivering approximately 250 babies each month,or about eight a day.

Coon said that before distributing the boxes in Anchorage, they wanted to make sure new parents were even interested in the concept.

"The pilot period allows the ability to review the effectiveness," Coon said. "We didn't want to go purchase a bunch of them and have people not like them."

Alaska's post-neonatal mortality rate — counted as age 1 month through the first year of life — has historically been one of the highest per capita in the nation, according to Margaret Young, maternal child health epidemiology unit manager with the state department of heath and social services. With Alaska's number of infant deaths — between 45 and 75 a year —  statistics can fluctuate dramatically from year to year, she said.

The post-neonatal period is when most sleep-related deaths occur.

[Related: Rash of sleep-related infant deaths troubles health officials]

Young said due to the lack of studies on the effectiveness of baby boxes, the state has no official stance on the program. She noted that the Finnish program encouraged women to come in for prenatal care as well, which may have contributed to lower infant mortality rates.

Jen Aist, manager of Providence's maternity outpatient clinic and services, said she hadn't been sure how the boxes would go over with new parents.

"Full disclosure — I did not think this would be as popular," Aist said. "But people have been picking them up with gusto."

The box is available free to every parent who gives birth in the hospital during the pilot period. Aist, who oversees the clinic that distributes the boxes, said every parent that's been given a voucher has picked it one up.

Aist has been in contact with families who've picked up the boxes and said she's heard about a mix of uses for it. Some use it regularly for a sleeping baby; others say it makes a great keepsake.

But to Aist and others at Providence, the boxes also offer a chance to start a conversation about safe sleep practices.

"The box doesn't do anything magical. There's nothing super-protective to the baby," Aist said. "But the box is an opportunity to reframe how we look at baby sleep space."

During a tour of the maternity center Friday, Cathy Heckenlively, clinical manager of maternity services, pointed out a display near the center's front desk. To the left was a clear plastic bassinet the hospital uses for the babies; to the right was one of the boxes. Besides the outside, the two sleeping units look the same.

Both Premera and Providence said they are still trying to figure out how to measure the success of the program. Heckenlively said survey questions for the parents are currently being drafted. It could be up to a year and a half or two years before the hospital has any conclusive results regarding the effectiveness of the project.

But for new moms, it's already proving useful. Mikayla Melchert delivered her daughter, Remington, on Thursday. Resting in her room on Friday, Remington stayed wrapped in her sleep sack, peeking around and yawning at times.

Melchert, 21, said her newborn loved the fleece wrapping and would cry any time she was taken out of it. Just last month, the hospital stopped swaddling infants and switched to using the sleep sacks, which are thought to be a safer sleep system for babies.

Despite already having a crib and bassinet at home, Melchert said she still has immediate plans for the box. A few camping trips are planned, she said, and the sturdy box will come along as a safe place for Remington to sleep.