Parents given cardboard boxes to help prevent cot death among babies

The UK has a high rate of infant mortality – 4.19 deaths per 1,000 births

Parents are being given cardboard boxes for their babies in an attempt by hospitals to help prevent cot death.

Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in west London is distributing small boxes fitted with foam mattresses to new families as part of a strategy to reduce the UK’s high infant mortality rate.

Popular in Finland, where they have been credited with lowering infant mortality rates from 65 per 1000 in 1938, to 2.3 in 2015, the so-called “baby boxes” are said to prevent babies from rolling onto their stomach, which is believed to increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Dr Karen Joash, consultant obstetrician at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, said in a statement: "For too many years the UK has fallen behind its European counterparts when it comes to reducing infant mortality."

She added: "These boxes and the education resources that sit alongside them have been proven to help reduce the infant mortality rate in Finland and we hope that these results could be replicated in the UK."

Britain is the 22nd highest out of 50 European countries in terms of infant mortality rates, with 4.19 deaths per 1,000 births, according to the World Bank. Almost 300 babies die each year in Britain as a result of SIDS.

The hospital will distribute 800 baby boxes on a first come, first served basis.

The babies will be monitored by the trust until they are eight months old, as practised in Finland, and parents will be asked to fill out a feedback questionnaire about their use of the baby box.

A 2013 study found breastfed babies under three months who sleep in their parents’ beds face a significantly increased risk of cot death.