A lecture on babies' eye health was recently held for new moms in a cultural activity center in Xianxia Community, Changning District, in Shanghai.

The lecturer shared knowledge about genetic eye diseases and common infants' eye diseases and detailed instructions for the new moms to develop their infants' visual abilities were offered.

The lecture was also broadcast online, enabling the parents who could not attend the lecture to benefit from the event as well.

It was a part of a program initiated by the Women's Federation of Changning District, the Shanghai Medical Women's Association (SMWA) and an online maternal and child care platform. Such lectures on the promotion of family education have been held over the past two years. 

Statistics show that in recent years about 4,000 new babies are born in Changning District each year, that is to say, there are around 4,000 new moms and 4,000 families with newborns. Whether new moms are able to master child-raising knowledge and can be fully supported by society has influence on the infants' health and the families' happiness directly.

The federation has integrated family education with the Internet, exploring the method of Internet plus early childhood education and strengthening the scientific guidance of family education through live streaming and short videos.

To prevent new moms from learning wrong methods of raising child on the Internet, the SMWA helped dispatch senior pediatricians from Grade III hospitals in Shanghai, to instruct families with newborns on child care in communities. The federation established an online platform, to guide new moms through lectures with short videos and live streaming.

According to Wang Weiqin, vice-president of the district's women's federation, the federation has been making continuous efforts to support new moms and improve the families' ability of raising new babies.

Wang said the federation has given maternal-child nursing courses online. It has also offered psychological support to the new moms, aiming to further strengthen the social care to women after childbirth and offer them a better family and community environment.

Parenting is not only the responsibility of new mothers, but also brings challenges to new fathers and grandparents.

Nearly 80 percent of families have grandparents to help take care of babies. In addition to novice mothers, new fathers and grandparents need to be covered in the training course of raising children. Wang said the federation has offered child-raising guidance lectures to fathers and grandparents for many years, which are popular with the local families.

On October 22, Tian Yuan, head of the health management department of the Children's Hospital of Shanghai, explained the characteristics of the fine motor functions of children under 3 in a cultural activity center in a sub-district in Changning.

"The lecture helps our family a lot. I learn many scientific methods of raising child. I will recommend it to my mother-in-law. She can watch it via the mobile phone. I hope such lectures will be held frequently," said a mother who has a 9-month-old baby.

Changning is a national demonstration district for the implementation of China's development program for women and children and a pilot area for the implementation of the system of national family education guidance service.

"In the future, the federation will enhance the development of the project of  'intelligent family education cloud classrooms' and produce and put more videos on the Internet, so more families have access to them and learn knowledge and skills on education at any time," Wang added.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)