Father-baby rooms give a fresh boost to Shenzhen's child-friendly city drive

On Sunday afternoon (April 13), the Rainbow Department Store in Xixiang, Bao’an District, was bustling with shoppers and residents enjoying their weekend as usual. Huang Zhuorui brought his baby girl into an enclosed space on the B1 floor marked “Super Daddy Area” on its wooden door. He gently lifted his daughter from the stroller and placed her on the baby-care table to change her diaper.An enclosed space marked "Super Daddy Area" in the Rainbow Department Store in Xixiang, Bao’an District. Photos by Wei Jie

The baby is Huang’s second child, and his older son is now a third-grader at a local primary school. “I didn’t participate much in caring for my son, simply because when he was little there wasn’t anything like the father-child care room,” Huang said, adding that all the child-care responsibilities for his son during their family outings were handled solely by his wife.

Emergence of father-baby rooms

The father-baby room in the Xixiang Rainbow store became an instant internet sensation in late March when a video about it went viral on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Shenzheners are accustomed to maternal rooms in public places, which are typically decorated in different shades of pink and feature advertisements centered on motherhood. Some even have signs at the entrance restricting access for men.

In contrast, the father-baby room in Rainbow features two height-adjustable baby-care tables equipped with safety buckles and a scale for weighing infants. There’s also a milk bottle warmer, a thermos bag with wet tissues, and a dark blue couch, all designed to cater to fathers taking care of young children.

As Huang carefully attended to his daughter, he couldn’t help but appreciate the thoughtful design of the space, which offers privacy, comfort, and convenience.

“It feels good to have a space where fathers are welcomed and supported,” he said.

Zhang Weixin, marketing manager of the department store, explained that the father-baby space was created after management recorded multiple instances of fathers finding it awkward and inconvenient to use the men’s restroom when they are at Rainbow alone with their infant daughters.

“The father-baby room gives dads a sense of involvement in child care, which we strongly advocate,” Zhang said, adding that both the mother-baby room and father-baby room were designated simultaneously on the B1 floor, known for food courts, and the fifth floor, where children’s clothing and play areas are located.

A corner of the father-baby room in the Rainbow Department Store in Xixiang, Bao’an District.

According to Zhang, many fathers visiting Rainbow with young children use the father-baby room on weekends. “I’ve even seen grandfathers bringing their granddaughters there,” she said, highlighting the high level of demand.

A male employee at the mall, surnamed Ran, said that he no longer has to worry about preparing formula or changing diapers when taking his twins to Rainbow alone. He said he had to change diapers for his twins in the men’s restroom before the father-baby room was established.

Other visitors shared similar sentiments as Huang and Ran. A young mother who was nearby pushing a stroller on Sunday afternoon said, “It’s great to see fathers here, as it sends a strong message that parenting is a shared responsibility and that public awareness is growing.”

Facility gap discourages father involvement

“It’s not that fathers didn’t want to get involved in caring for their young children, but they were often discouraged from doing so,” said an IT programmer surnamed Zhao, who became a father six months ago. He made the comment after changing his son’s diaper in the father-baby room at Rainbow on that Sunday afternoon.

Zhao shared an experience involving his cousin, who took his daughter out on a weekend two years ago. “My cousin looked so frustrated when the two families met for dinner that evening. He told us that he had to place his daughter on the floor of the men’s restroom to change her diaper because the shopping mall they visited didn’t have a father-baby room or a suitable platform in the men’s restroom. Passersby gave him strange looks as he wasn’t supposed to put a baby on the floor.”

Even fathers who were out with their spouses during family outings faced challenges in caring for their young children. Lin Yu, a father of two, recalled being mistaken for a stalker while waiting outside a mother-baby room as his wife breastfed their first child at a shopping mall in Futian District back in 2020.

“Many maternal rooms in public places restrict men’s access for privacy reasons, which is understandable but awkward in practice. Young mothers need help attending to their babies, yet fathers are not allowed inside the room,” Lin said.

Technically, the two father-baby rooms in Rainbow are currently the first of their kind in Shenzhen despite several other commercial complexes across the city — such as the UniWalk Center in Qianhai and the UpperHills mall in Futian District — having set up unisex restrooms that cater to parents caring for toddlers and babies of the opposite sex.

A baby care area in the SCPG Center in Futian District.

The SCPG Center in Futian District has taken this a step further by designating a separate area within the mother-baby room on the third floor for parents taking young children to the restroom. Nearby is an open baby care area equipped with diaper changing tables, baby scales, and devices for warming milk, sterilizing bottles, and boiling water. Men using this space will not feel uncomfortable.

Further inside the maternal room are three private spaces for mothers to breastfeed, which ensures privacy. However, the mother-baby room sign at the entrance may discourage many fathers who are unaware of the design from using the facilities.

A baby care area in the SCPG Center in Futian District.

What distinguishes a mother-baby room from a father-baby room is the need for breastfeeding, said Lin. “It is not economically feasible to require commercial centers to designate more space for additional father-baby rooms. Why don’t we learn from some northern European countries and name such spaces family rooms or baby rooms?” said Lin, who works for a Swedish company in Shenzhen.

The term family room places emphasis on family-friendly environments and gender equity in parenting. Designed for use by all parents, regardless of gender, these family rooms provide private, safe, and comfortable spaces where caregivers can tend to the needs of their children.

A child-friendly city taking shape

The inclusive approach marks a significant step forward in the development of Shenzhen’s family-friendly facilities. As early as 2016, Shenzhen set a goal to have 25% of its public places equipped with mother-baby rooms by 2020. By 2020, the number of maternal rooms in Shenzhen had reached 845, leading the country.

According to official statistics, the city currently has more than 1,400 mother-baby rooms, covering major areas such as transportation hubs, government service centers, parks, and commercial centers. These maternal rooms have essentially become a standard feature in public venues throughout the city.

In addition, Shenzhen, leveraging its drive to build a child-friendly city, has launched the “Shenzhen Child-Friendly Bases Map Guide” mini program, enabling users to easily locate mother-baby rooms nearest to them.

While Shenzhen has spared no effort in expanding the coverage of mother-baby rooms citywide, it has also placed increasing emphasis on enhancing service quality and improving user experience to better meet the growing needs of families with young children.

A private nursing room in the SCPG Center in Futian District.

The emergence of father-baby rooms is one important part of Shenzhen’s response to societal expectations regarding men’s roles in child care, promoting equity in parenting responsibilities.

In 2023, the Shenzhen Women’s Federation initiated the “Father Action” public welfare project, which aims to raise public awareness of “high-quality involvement and companionship in fatherhood.”

The project adopts a diversified approach to encourage fathers’ participation in family education, like arranging activities such as outdoor challenges, establishing meeting spaces, and managing online community operations. Since its launch in July 2023, it has organized more than a dozen father-child experience programs, creating high-quality, eight-hour companionship sessions for fathers and their children.

The “Father Action” project team operates a brick-and-mortar space in the Shenzhen Women and Children Building in Futian’s Jingtian area to continuously promote fatherhood education. It also manages four online sharing communities where family education instructors are invited to regularly share knowledge.