A local organization recently took a 75-year-old tradition in Finland and tailored it to help new mothers in the area. The Elizabeth Ann Seton Program helps pregnant and parenting women in the central Illinois area who may be poverty stricken or going through some type of crisis. According to EAS Program Executive Director Dawn Morris, over 50 percent of the women in the three counties they serve do not have a home or bed for their baby. The EAS Program used to offer new mothers bassinets or baby beds. Due to new laws and regulations, Morris wondered if they were offering a safe or practical bed for mothers who were homeless or in transitional housing.

Let's stay that they were staying with their aunt or a friend, Morris said. Well, they would have to leave and most of them don't have transportation, (so) to take the baby bed was such an issue so either the home owner wouldn't let them take the baby bed or they couldn't figure out a way to get the baby bed from point A to point B. So in doing that, I just talked to my Board of Director's and I said, 'Look, this is a real struggle.' Immediately my board president says, 'Dawn, have you thought about the baby box program?' I immediately (said), 'What are you talking about?' She said she had just read an article online and Finland - their government (gives) every child that is born (there) a baby box. So of course I did my homework and I fell in love with the idea because not only is it a box, but it's everything that the child needs, depending on the size of the child, usually we can make this work for the first 30 days of life.

The baby box serves as a bassinet and also has diapers, onesies, blankets and everything else a child might need.

It is a cardboard box but it is FDA approved - we definitely did our homework on that. Morris said. That's why we go through the baby box company out of Texas, because everything of theirs has been tested and approved. But it is a cardboard box and everything comes in the box: the pacifiers, a swaddler, a health kit, a pair of socks, a bib, washcloths, wipes, a diaper kit and even a little book. (Also), after the child has outgrown that box many of the women we work with have nothing (from) when their child was younger - No baby pictures, no first picture at preschool or even Sunday School and that kind of blew my mind. So what we do is we even give her information about making that box then become that child's memory box. Everything that's worth keeping of that child's should fit in that box.

Before becoming a memory box, it serves as a safe sleeping place for the baby.

So many times too, the women we work with, they co-sleep with their babies. Morris said. Since I've been working here at the agency, we have lost two babies to co-sleeping. Just being uneducated and we've all done it - We've all made that mistake of just laying our baby on the couch with us or on our chest but then you fall asleep - it's very dangerous and then, of course, the issue with SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). So, overall, it's been a wonderful additive to the program.

While it is known as the Baby Box, Morris has a different name for it.

We take referrals on this several different ways, Morris said. It could be the hospital or it could be another agency that knows that a mother gave birth and doesn't have something for the baby to sleep in. I call it the Box of Love - as we're taking it and we're delivering it to these newborn babies and getting to see the mom and getting to provide such a needed item for her baby. Actually that (name) started from one of the nurses when I delivered (it), she says, 'Dawn, every time you walk in here with that box, all I think of is that box is so full of love.

The Elizabeth Ann Seton Program will accept monetary donations or donations of baby items for the boxes. The Litchfield EAS Office is at 309 South State Street and their phone number is (217) 324-3270.

For more information on how the baby box started in Finland, check out this article: Why Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes

Also, here's a link to an Elizabeth Ann Seton Program newsletter with a feature about their baby boxes: EAS Newsletter.Thomack 2/23/16