So you want a baby box. By now you have seen the pictures, and heard from friends and family. They are receiving a super adorable baby box, for FREE. You might be wondering to yourself, how do I get an amazing baby box? This post is for you. It contains all the information you need to pick up your Baby Box from Generations Midwifery Care.
The Baby Box Co. is the first company in Ontario to offer this opportunity based upon the successful program in Finland. The boxes are designed as safe sleep locations for babies with additional products inside.
But, ‘I thought I already signed up for my Baby Box,’ you may be saying?! You might have signed up for the other baby box. Here is the story.
A few years ago the success rate of the program in Finland started being noticed in North America. In Finland, more and more pregnant people were accessing prenatal care earlier and increasing their chances of healthy pregnancies and good outcomes, such as decreased infant mortality rates.
Two companies started exploring bringing the Finland program to North America. The Baby Box Co., and Baby Box Canada. The Baby Box Co. partnered with the Alberta Government and began distributing these boxes. The Ontario Government noticed and decided to partner with the Baby Box Co. to have a trial run of 145,000 boxes for anyone having a baby in Ontario between August 1st, 2016 – August 1, 2017.
The Baby Box Co., is the first company in Ontario to offer this opportunity based upon the successful program in Finland. The Baby Box Co. baby box is the only program that is being sponsored and endorsed by the Ontario Government.
The other program also starting, hoping to be shipping boxes directly to families in 2017, is called Baby Box Canada. This is also a free box, but the actual box is not created to be a safe sleep environment for babies. Instead it is a smaller box of free product to pregnant people. While the contents will likely be exciting and useful, the Baby Box Canada company is not the same as the Baby Box Co. Ontario baby box program. Baby Box Canada has also not committed to the Baby Friendly Initiative.
The idea behind the program in Ontario is to improve health outcomes for families at the very beginning of their journey, connect families to healthcare professionals as soon as possible, and to offer a safe sleep environment (aka, the box) complete with mattress and sheet.
Make sense? Want one? Read on!
Step one: Register on Baby Box University
Step two: Get your completion certificate
Once you register at Baby Box University with an Ontario Postal Code, you will be automatically guided to the ‘Parenthood 101 Syllabus’ for our community. Bonus points if you find our midwives who were interviewed for their expertise. The class takes approximately ten minutes to complete, and once done you receive a certificate emailed to you. You can either print it or take a screen shot of it and show us the picture.
Step two and a half:
At Generations Midwifery Care we are working hard to customize the boxes for our pregnant clients and add additional products for you to have and try out. Let us know on our Facebook page what you would love to see in your box!
Step three:
Pick up your box from one of the Ontario distributors. That’s us! Generations Midwifery Care, Brockville prenatal clinic, 334 Park Street, across from the Brockville YMCA. You do not have to be a midwifery client to pick up your box at our location. We are a distribution centre for Baby Box Co.
That’s it! That’s all.
We encourage you to take pictures of your baby in it and post to our Facebook page or Instagram with the hast tag, #generationsbabybox.
Have you stumbled on to this post because of The Baby Box Co., and want to learn more about midwifery?
Start here.
Want to see why midwifery is so in demand?
Try this.
Interested in having medical, evidence-based care, personalized to you? Call us for a no obligation appointment. 613-345-6608.
Meghan Jarzyna is the Practice Director for Generations Midwifery Care. You can read more about her here.