I Had a Deoxyribonucleic Acid Test

I recently had my DNA analysed through www.ancestry.com. It’s a really interesting thing to do—especially if you have a few gaps in your history. My mother was adopted, so I was keen to see what was in my genes. I found out that I am 37% Scandinavian which I knew from my Dad whose father was Danish, but I wasn’t quite expecting such a strong showing. I’ve been to Norway and Denmark and absolutely loved it, so now I’m planning to spend a bit more time in that area.  I do love Scandinavian food, and my youngest daughter is white blonde with blue eyes so go figure.
There’s a lot about the Scandinavian health system which is just fantastic and should be applauded. I read an article in the New York Times recently about Finland’s babies sleeping in cardboard boxes. Each mother is given  a baby box, but there’s a string attached. To receive it, the mother has to undergo a medical exam during the first four months of pregnancy.Each year the government gives away about 40,000 of the boxes, which come with bedding and about 50 other baby items, including clothes, socks, a warm coat, and even a baby balaclava for the icy Nordic winter. (Mothers who don’t need all those items can choose to get 140 euros instead, or about $155.)  You can read the story here.
And this simple gift is one reason that Finland now has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world — 2.52 for every 1,000 births. In New Zealand our most recent rate was 4.2 deaths for every 1,000 births.
What a stunningly simple idea this would be for New Zealand to adopt. I see that there is a move here to provide parents with a simple baby pod to help stop the numbers of babies dying from suffocation, yet the government has done nothing to support it. You can read that story here.