New and expectant mothers across Colorado will soon be eligible to receive a free gift: a cardboard box that health workers hope will reduce infant mortality.

The box comes courtesy of The Baby Box Co., a for-profit maker of the kinds of boxes that mothers in Finland have received for decades. The boxes include a basic foam mattress and can serve as a safe sleep space for infants up to about 6 months old. A smattering of other items — such as diapers, wipes and onesies — are also included with the boxes.

While the reasons behind infant mortality are complicated, unsafe sleep environments — especially when the mother and baby share the same bed — are one contributing factor, said Robin Engleberg, the program manager for the Denver Health Foundation, which is participating in the baby box campaign. The new program will help connect mothers early with education resources to help them better care for their babies, she said.

“The main objective of this whole initiative is to teach our patients safe sleep practices with a newborn,” Engleberg said.

The campaign comes after a tryout by Denver Public Health earlier this year. In the new program, The Baby Box Co. is donating boxes to the Denver Health Foundation and the Rocky Mountain Children’s Health Foundation, which will help distribute them at about 45 clinics and health centers across the state.

New moms, expectant moms or grandparents-to-be can watch a Colorado-specific video on The Baby Box Co.’s Baby Box University website. After that, they will receive a voucher for a free baby box, which can either be redeemed online or traded in at one of the designated sites.

The program hopes to have enough boxes to provide one for every newborn child in Colorado this year.

“We’re incredibly excited about this,” said Jennifer Clary, the CEO and co-founder of The Baby Box Co. “We’ve been working a long time to bring this to fruition in Colorado.”

The Baby Box Co. has similar mass distribution campaigns in four other states.