- Information you want your grandparents to know arrives on your phone every day.
- 70% of mothers feel that there is a gap between their own mother and them when it comes to pregnancy and childcare
- Assist in bridging the generation gap and creating an environment where families help each other raise their children
We spoke with...
Eversense Corporation
Nagisa Watanabe, Product Owner, Grandparents ninaru
70% of moms were troubled by their own mother's anachronistic advice
Editor: How did you develop "Grandparents ninaru"?
Watanabe: We have been developing the "ninaru" series of child-rearing support apps that provide information to those who are pregnant or raising children. Grandparent ninaru" is the grandparent version of "ninaru" and was released for Android in November last year and for iOS in January this year. In the course of creating childcare support apps, we have found that there is a gap in understanding between mothers and their own mothers regarding pregnancy and childcare, and that many mothers are suffering from this gap. In order to close this gap, we thought it was essential to provide grandparents with accurate information on current pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare so that they could update their knowledge, which led us to develop this app.
Editor: What exactly was the generation gap?
Watanabe：For example, during pregnancy, there used to be a belief that you should eat for the sake of your baby, even if you had to force yourself to do so. Nowadays, however, people believe that there is no need to force yourself to eat when morning sickness is severe. We often hear about the problem of tooth decay. In the old days, adults used to soften food in their mouths and then transfer it to the baby's mouth, but this practice can pass on tooth decay bacteria to the baby. In addition, many mothers are troubled by the generation gap in child-rearing, as grandparents still believe that mothers should stay close to their children until they are about three years old, and grandmothers are reluctant to leave their children at daycare and go to work.
Editor: Are grandmothers aware that moms are experiencing these perception gaps?
Watanabe: As a result of our questionnaire, "Have you ever felt a generation gap with your grandparents in terms of pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing?" nearly 70% of mothers answered "Yes. On the other hand, when we asked grandmothers the same question (do you feel a generation gap with your daughter?), only 40% of grandmothers answered "Yes. The grandmothers were unaware that their know-how was a little outdated and that their daughters felt a gap. We felt that these gaps in mutual recognition needed to be remedied promptly.
Editor: It would be a shame if the compassion of a grandmother who was supposed to be the most understanding person was instead causing stress.
Watanabe：Yes. Grandmothers are supposed to be the senior mothers who are closest to us and watch over us, but I wanted to do something about the situation where both of us were not happy because of this gap.
Useful information during pregnancy and childcare is put into the palm of grandparents' hands every day.
Editor: Are there any points that you took into consideration for an app for seniors?
Watanabe: Naturally, we want to communicate trends in childcare, but since this service is aimed at people who have experienced pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare, we don't want to deny what was going on at the time, but rather to update their knowledge with them from the same perspective. We also made the text and icons larger than in the other "ninaru" series, and tried to make the design and operability easy to read even for senior citizens.
Screens designed to be easy to read for seniors
Editor: How often will messages and information be delivered?
Watanabe: From the time you are pregnant until your first birthday, you will receive a message every day. After that, you'll receive a message once a week.
Editor: Who prepares the articles?
Watanabe: All articles are created in-house. The number of articles we have distributed reaches several thousand, including those accumulated in the "ninaru" series. We cover almost all areas related to childcare. In the future, we would like to focus on content on how to get along with daughters and grandchildren.
Daily messages about the growth of pregnant mothers and their babies
A full range of content on pregnancy, childbirth and childcare, created under the supervision of doctors and midwives
Editor: What is the ratio of male to female users who are actually using the app?
Watanabe: It's about 70% women and 30% men. At first, we thought that 90% of the messages would be from grandmothers, so we were surprised to see that there were more grandfathers than we had expected. At the moment, the content of the messages is the same for both grandparents and grandfathers, but in the future we hope to personalize the messages and deliver different content for men and women.
Editor: How has the response been?
Watanabe: We've received a lot of positive feedback, with mothers writing on Twitter, "I didn't know there was an app like this. Many people of the grandparent generation are surprised at the difference from when they were pregnant and gave birth to the information they receive every day, saying, "I didn't know all this.
Ms. Watanabe has also written many articles on childcare.
Editor: Please tell us about your future plans.
Watanabe: We still need to increase the awareness of "Grandparents ninaru". Ideally, we would like to see a natural flow of mothers downloading "ninaru" after pregnancy and grandparents downloading "Grandparents ninaru". In order to achieve this, we are working every day to introduce the download procedure so that as many people as possible can easily use the app. Currently, we only provide information for children up to the age of four, but in the future, we'd like to enrich the articles so that we can provide information for children up to the time they enter elementary school.
After the interview
There are many things that happen around us that we used to believe in, but as time goes by, they become insane. This is especially true in the fields of pregnancy and childcare. I felt that "Grandparents ninaru" is a reassuring application that can be used by both senior mothers, such as biological mothers and mothers-in-law, and new mothers to gently support each other's feelings. With seniors now having smartphones as a matter of course, "Grandparents ninaru" is sure to become a must-have app for grandparents in the future.
Grandparents NINARU Official website
https://eversense.co.jp/product/sofuboninaru
