INFANT MORTALITY

That this House welcomes the Scottish National Party's manifesto commitment to a maternity package initiative, intended to be funded by Scottish taxpayers, which includes the provision of a baby box for new parents and their newly-born baby; notes that this box contains essential items to give each baby the best start in life, such as clothing, toys, nappies and other baby essentials, including an in-built mattress which enables the box to become a cot, giving the baby somewhere safe to sleep, as well as freeing parents from the additional worry of the cost of providing these expensive items; and further notes that a similar scheme has been running in Finland for 80 years and, in conjunction with the ante-natal advice from healthcare professionals, has contributed to lowering the number of first year infant deaths from 10 per cent to 0.2 per cent, giving Finland one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.