～03/31/2021
Team Leader
Shinichi Hirose
(Professor of Faculty of Medicine, Director of Institute for the Molecular Pathomechanisms of Epilepsy）

Fukuoka University Hospital is one of the core institutions of prenatal and pediatric care in Fukuoka Prefecture. It was the first institute to receive the designation of General Prenatal Maternal and Child Medical Center in the prefecture, and with 108 beds dedicated to the pediatric department, it is one of the best in the prefecture. It has also abundant experience with high-risk expectant and nursing mothers, the medical care of newborn babies, and nursing care.
After mothers and their newly born children are discharged from the hospital, their "child rearing ability" at home and within the community becomes the next issue. As a result, we will provide childcare support lectures for parents and grandparents taught by medical and nursing specialists. Offering a place to learn about "child rearing" through both lectures and hands-on practice to grandparents, who are expected to care for their grandchildren together with the parents, is seen as a unique approach even nationwide.
In addition, we also provide assistance at an early stage with deciding on a "family pediatrician," to allow children discharged from hospital to grow up healthily within the community. The effects of such efforts are evaluated by investigating the mother's "degree of child labor anxiety" as well as her "observation and response capability."
Furthermore, we plan to develop regional initiatives such as nursery schools, nursery teacher training and pregnancy/childbirth/child-rearing information provided via an e-mail magazine (in collaboration with the Fukuoka City Children's Future Bureau). The goal is to make Fukuoka City a place where people can live a safe "life with children."