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.)

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.

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.

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.