In Finland, the package was actually seen as a part of the war machine.
The package developed from assistance baskets delivered to low-income mothers by General Mannerheim's Child Protection Society after the Finnish civil war (1918), and became a government program in 1937 by offering the package to low-income mothers. The purpose was to increase birth rate and reduce infant mortality by drawing mothers to pre-natal care with the promise of free stuff.
It was expanded during the years of WW II and offered to all mothers starting 1947, at a time when the country was recovering from war and paying war reparations to USSR and everyone was really piss-poor, so poor it makes me want to cry. The country was under tremendous pressure from the Soviets and had to desperately assign all available resources to defence, food production and other essential items. Making parents feel that the government cares for them was important in the war years.
The package developed from assistance baskets delivered to low-income mothers by General Mannerheim's Child Protection Society after the Finnish civil war (1918), and became a government program in 1937 by offering the package to low-income mothers. The purpose was to increase birth rate and reduce infant mortality by drawing mothers to pre-natal care with the promise of free stuff.
It was expanded during the years of WW II and offered to all mothers starting 1947, at a time when the country was recovering from war and paying war reparations to USSR and everyone was really piss-poor, so poor it makes me want to cry. The country was under tremendous pressure from the Soviets and had to desperately assign all available resources to defence, food production and other essential items. Making parents feel that the government cares for them was important in the war years.