Diaper-changing and baby nursing facilities and places were provided in ward-operated childcare centers and children's facilities in response to parents who noted that they worried about finding places to change or nurse their infants when they are out with them. This program to support child-rearing was the first of its kind in Japan and was a suggestion of an Itabashi Ward employee in 2006. The facilities are called "Baby Stations". Such facilities later spread to facilities of universities, senior citizen residential service centers and non-profits, expanding to 135 places as of June 2010. The "Baby Stations" were also praised for the ease with which the name is understood as well as the ease of implementing such a facility; the idea is spreading nationwide and the pace of setting up similar "Baby Stations" is currently picking up in a number of municipalities. In addition, municipalities that have implemented "Baby Stations" are producing and distributing maps and making them searchable from cell phone web sites. They are also coming up with their own ideas and services, such as programs to subsidize facilities. "Baby Stations" were a small idea intended to solve one area's problem, but it has resonated with municipalities facing the same problem and is now established and moving forward at the national level, creating big changes in how child-rearing is supported in Japan. It is worthy of high praise as an initiative well suited to the Lifescape Design Award.