China will start a nationwide campaign to spread scientific knowledge on how to give birth to a healthy baby, said an official of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF).

The campaign, dubbed "Seed Project" and sponsored by the ACWF, the State Commission for Population and Family Planning and Roche (Shanghai) Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., aims at providing young couples with information to ensure the health of both the mother and baby.

The project is divided into three phases and the first one has already started in eight major cities such as Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.

According to the plan, some 600,000 pregnant women and those who plan to have a child will have a chance to receive free brochures and consultation services, listen to lectures and exchange ideas with each other at regularly-staged seminars.

The ACWF official said that upgrading the living and health condition of women and children is an important task of the government, which issued an improved compendium on the development of Chinese women and children in 2001.

Alan Main, general manager of Roche Consumer Health, said his organization is happy to offer medical assistance to ensure the health of mothers and babies and has already introduced vitamins capable of greatly reducing the possibilities of congenital diseases, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2003)