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A Los Angeles company is working with hospitals and health departments in Ohio to give away cardboard box beds for every newborn in the state this year in an effort to reduce the high infant-mortality rate.

Supporters say these beds — inspired by boxes provided to every newborn in Finland for decades — can be used during an infant’s first months to reduce the risk of sleep-related deaths.

In 2015, 1,005 Ohio babies died before their first birthday, with 150 of the deaths — about three each week — being sleep-related. The state’s overall rate of 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births is well above the national rate of 5.9, and ranks Ohio 39th among states.

The baby-box initiative is a partnership between the Baby Box Co. and the Cincinnati Health Department, the Richland County Health Department, University Hospitals MacDonald Women’s Hospital in Cleveland, University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Muskingum Valley Health Centers and the nonprofit babies Need Boxes.

So this is so #AmaZing

The groups want to distribute as many as 140,000 boxes this year. That’s about the number of annual births in Ohio.

Courtesy of columbus Dispatch