"It's rare to find a standard nursery when you go out, and sometimes you find it for half a day because the guidance sign is not clear." Not long ago, in a supermarket in Nanjing, a lactating mother complained to reporters.
As we all know, breast milk has become the best "ration" for babies because of its nutrition, quality, health, safety, temperature and other advantages. However, breastfeeding consistently is not an easy task for young mothers. Many working mothers have to give up breastfeeding after maternity leave and return to work. In addition, some nursing mothers who go out with their babies also often face embarrassment.
Recently, a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Network found that there are mother and baby rooms in some large shopping centers, but the marks are not obvious and are not easy to find. Some mother and baby rooms in some subway stations and other places have been rebuilt with light pipes, and the sanitary conditions, environment and facilities are not satisfactory, and the privacy is poor, and some mother and baby rooms are locked and reduced to decorations. Some parks and other places lack a mother and baby room, which brings a lot of inconvenience to nursing mothers, and finally can only choose to go to the third bathroom or even simply go to the women's toilet to solve it.
With the implementation of the three-child birth policy, the number of newly built and reconstructed mother and baby rooms in public places and institutions, enterprises and institutions is increasing, but its number still cannot meet the needs of nursing mothers, and it has become a topic of general concern in society to promote the construction and standardized management of mother and baby rooms and relieve the worries of nursing mothers.
In November 2021, the National Health Commission and 11 other departments jointly issued the Action Plan for Breastfeeding Promotion (15-2021), which proposed that by 2025, the allocation rate of maternal and infant facilities in public places should reach more than 2025%. In reality, the insufficient number of nursing rooms in the workplace remains a constraint to breastfeeding. According to the "80 China Women's Workplace Status Survey Report", only 2022.10% of female employees' enterprises provide facilities such as mother and baby rooms and breastfeeding rooms, resulting in some working mothers either fighting for "pumping" or giving up breastfeeding.
Chaos in the mother and baby room is frequent
The reporter searched for the keywords of "mother and baby room" through maps such as Gaode and Baidu and found that most of the information of the mother and baby room in Nanjing was not included in the above search tools, and the signs on the road also had problems such as inconsistent signs and too far guiding distance. In addition, there are many cases where toilets are used as mother-and-baby rooms.
The mother and baby room on the first floor of a station in Nanjing is located just at the exit of the taxi, the air is mixed with the smell of car exhaust and engine oil, and an open door is sandwiched between the men's and women's restrooms, and the sign reads "third toilet".
The reporter saw that the interior lights were dazzling, there were many flies, the diaper table in the corner was black and oily, and there was no socket in the house that could power the electric breast pump. "This is already the largest mother and baby room in the train station, and the rest is further away." A cleaner confessed.
"Built in this location, the smell of open taxi exhaust is big, and the musty smell of closing is even greater." Another cleaner at the station explained why the door was open in Nanjing's summer heat.
In popular scenic spots such as Nanjing's Laomen East and Confucius Temple, the number of mother and baby rooms is also very small, and the location is very difficult to find. The mother and baby room on Laomen East Cultural Street is located in the visitor center north of Hoop Barrel Lane. The map on an entire wall of the visitor center also does not indicate the location of the mother and baby room. In the Temple of Confucius, which has a large flow of people, there is no indication of a mother and baby room on the road, and the reporter learned that there is a mother and baby room in the scenic area, and you need to buy a ticket to enter and use.
The nursery is actually just a folding changing table installed on one wall of the women's toilet, and after the changing table is unfolded, the toilet aisle can barely pass through one person.
The reporter found that not all mother and baby rooms are open all year round, a considerable number of mother and baby rooms are open regularly, and some need to contact staff to open the door. There is a mother and baby room at Kazimen Station on Nanjing Metro Line 3, but when reporters arrived, they found that the gate was locked and the door handle was labeled "If necessary, please contact the staff." The reporter contacted the staff, and the other party had a good attitude and said that he would find a way to find an office.
"I know there is, but I don't know where it is, is there a station here?" A mother holding a child on the subway replied when asked by a reporter whether she knew there was a mother and baby room in the subway station.
Why there is a lack of supervision in the construction and use of mother and baby rooms
The facilities of the mother and baby room are damaged and not repaired, the room has not been ventilated for a long time and has a peculiar smell, and some mother and baby rooms are full of debris... How can such a mother and baby room resolve the embarrassment of feeding "Baoma" and give them a "sense of security"? This is the question of Xie Jing, director of the Fourth Procuratorial Department of the Liyang City People's Procuratorate in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province.
In February this year, Xie Jing discovered the uneven distribution of mother and baby rooms in handling cases. When she asked the mother of a minor involved in the case about the family situation, the mother inadvertently mentioned that when she was in the hospital with her 2-month-old Erbao, she wanted to change the child's diaper, but could not find the mother and baby room. Later, it took a long time for the mother to find it, and there were no seat belts on the changing table in the nursery.
Xie Jing keenly captured this clue, and she led the department's police to randomly visit and investigate 33 large public places in Liyang City, including supermarkets, hospitals, bus stations, scenic spots, etc. What surprised Xie Jing was that just over half of the places he visited had a mother and baby room, and the distribution was very uneven. She observed that these nurseries were mainly distributed in the main urban areas, with fewer suburbs and townships. On the other hand, the mother and baby rooms in the main urban area are concentrated in shopping places such as for-profit large-scale supermarkets that need to attract crowds.
"In parks, hospitals, bus stations and other public welfare service places with a large flow of people, the number of mother and baby rooms is obviously insufficient." Xie Jing said that improving maternal and infant facilities urgently needs to be paid attention to, and the needs of nursing mothers need to be guaranteed.
In addition, the vast majority of the information of the mother and baby room has not been entered into Baidu, AutoNavi and other map search tools, the signs on the road and indoor maps are not accurate and guided, and some do not have the location at all, and it is very difficult for mothers to find.
During the visit, many nursing mothers "complained" to Xie Jing that some of the facilities of the mother and baby room were not complete, some had been damaged and could not be used, and some had a peculiar smell because of long-term idleness. "The experience is very bad".
Xie Jing found that the mother and baby room has the nature of public welfare, and the construction cost is high, the supervision departments of the relevant places involve many administrative agencies such as transportation, health and commerce, and there are currently no relevant documents to clarify the supervision responsibilities of each department, and after various problems such as should be built but not built, built without use, and not in place in the later stage, there is no relevant administrative organ to order rectification, and there are no relevant punishment measures, resulting in a lack of supervision in the construction and use of the mother and baby room.
In response to these circumstances, the Liyang Municipal People's Procuratorate carried out administrative public interest litigation to urge the performance of the supervision duties of standardized construction of maternal and child facilities, and formulated and issued pre-litigation procuratorial recommendations for public interest litigation to four relevant administrative departments.
Looking forward to more "old looks" in the mother and baby room
In March this year, the Liyang Municipal People's Procuratorate held a public hearing on administrative public interest litigation cases. After listening to the opinions of all parties, the Liyang Municipal People's Procuratorate publicly served pre-litigation procuratorial suggestions to the Liyang Municipal Bureau of Commerce, the Health Bureau, the Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism, and the Bureau of Transportation, urging the administrative departments to improve the construction of maternal and infant facilities in the city as soon as possible and optimize the environment of maternal and infant facilities in public places.
The proposal proposes that all departments should increase the proportion of space in mother-and-baby rooms in townships and communities and expand the coverage of services. At the same time, relevant staff should standardize management, and promote the construction of maternal and infant facilities according to factors such as the area of public places, the flow of people, and the stay of mothers and infants. All relevant departments strictly conduct inventory and strengthen guidance, coordination and supervision of the construction and management of maternal and infant facilities in the industry.
In addition, in accordance with the principle of "who builds, who manages, who maintains", each responsible entity strengthens publicity through multiple channels for the construction, management and maintenance of maternal and infant facilities in their respective places to improve the use effect. At the same time, prosecutors also encourage public participation in supervision.
After the rectification, the Liyang Municipal People's Procuratorate also carried out on-site visits to "look back" and continue to follow up the implementation of the procuratorial recommendations. At present, 33 of the 28 large-scale public places such as supermarkets, hospitals, bus stations, scenic spots, etc., visited in the early stage, have been rectified, and the public places where the mother and baby rooms are set up are marked with the specific location of the mother and baby rooms in conspicuous positions such as entrances and road signs, so that mothers who urgently need to use the mother and baby rooms can see at a glance.
The rooms that have been set up are equipped with seats for breastfeeding or sofas, coffee tables, cribs or baby finishing tables with safety buckles, power sockets, trash cans, hot and cold water dispensers, and handwashing stations equipped with hand sanitizer, etc., so that the whole room is comfortable, tidy, warm and convenient.
Long Shuqin, associate professor of the Department of Sociology of Southeast University, said that standardized and standardized love mother and baby rooms are widely established in employers with more female employees and in public places such as airports, stations, docks, and large shopping malls to provide convenient conditions for women to breastfeed, and promote the transformation of public toilet mother and baby facilities as needed.
Previously, the General Office of the Jiangsu Provincial Government issued and promulgated the "Jiangsu Province Women's Development Plan (2021-2025)", which clearly stated that the construction of loving mother and baby rooms in public places should be promoted. The reporter found that the development plan only puts forward requirements for the construction of mother and baby rooms, but the solutions to subsequent management, maintenance and labeling problems still need to be implemented.
Long Shuqin said that on the basis of the inclusion of the mother and baby room into the navigation system, for some areas that urgently need to build a mother and baby room but are still missing, users can give feedback, and then the navigation system will be fed back to the relevant departments, so as to improve the coverage of the mother and baby room. At the same time, in the management and maintenance of the mother and baby room, relevant staff should set up feedback and evaluation mechanisms to promote all responsible subjects to better implement the responsibility of the management and maintenance of the mother and baby room.
Zhang Yiqiao Wang Xiaotian Zhongqing Daily / Zhongqing Net reporter Li Chao Source: China Youth Daily