Employers are making Shanghai baby friendly

More than 79 percent of local public venues have set up baby care facilities to help parents feed and change their babies and toddlers.

More than 3,000 employers have established such rooms and facilities in the workplace to help mainly female employees, the city's health authority said during a series of events for the International Day of Families over the weekend.

The rooms are for both parents, but they serve an important role in providing a space for mothers to breast feed in private.

To better help parents, the Shanghai Health Commission has teamed with an information service company to launch a digital map of all such baby care rooms.

The shiminyun app has pictures, names, locations, service times, telephone numbers and comments for a range of baby care rooms.

The health commission said the city is facing challenges after the national government changed its policy to allow couples to have a second child.

Shanghai has a population of about 25 million, with an aging population and many migrants from outside the city.

The birth rate here is still low because of the cost of having a child and the pressure for couples to work to meet high living costs.