Yangcheon-gu Celebrates Seoul's First New Year Baby with Presentation of Traditional Baby Jacket

Celebrating All Newborns in the Year of the Blue Dragon, Yangcheon District Resident Seubukgi Delivers Representative Thanks
Over 1,500 Sets of Baby Jackets and Mittens Distributed by Yangcheon Volunteer Center to Overcome Low Birthrate
First Local Government Mom and Momanae Companion Project and Overnight Emergency Childcare Center Actively Support from Birth to Parenting

The ‘Seoul City’s First Newborn of the Year’ in 2024, filled with the energy of the Blue Dragon of the Gapjin year, has been revealed to be Seubeok-i (nickname), born to a couple residing in Sinwol-dong, Yangcheon-gu, sparking public interest.

Yangcheon-gu (District Mayor Lee Gijae) announced that on the afternoon of the 4th, they presented a traditional newborn jacket (baenaet jeogori) to Seubeok-i, representing all newborns, to celebrate the healthy birth of babies in an era of low birth rates, and pledged to continue making Yangcheon a great place to have and raise children.

In particular, the baenaet jeogori delivered was carefully hand-stitched stitch by stitch by the volunteer group of the Yangcheon-gu Volunteer Center, wishing for the child’s health and good fortune. This traditional newborn jacket, which connects the baby to the world for the first time, embodies the district’s heartfelt celebration of this precious birth, making it even more meaningful.

This initiative, established in 2013 among Seoul’s autonomous districts through the talent donation of local residents, originally supported low-income vulnerable groups and single mother facilities. However, considering the recent serious national low birth rate situation, the district expanded the support target to all childbirth families in the area from May last year, and has so far provided about 1,500 sets of baenaet jeogori and hand mittens.

Additionally, the district is discovering and promoting various projects from childbirth support to parenting and childcare to be of even a little help to residents on the front lines.

First, there is the ‘Mom and Mom (心) Together Project,’ approved by the Central Infertility and Depression Counseling Center and implemented for the first time nationwide by a local government. This is a six-week self-health management program for couples preparing for pregnancy, pregnant women, and parenting families to learn how to manage and prevent psychological difficulties such as infertility, depression, and parenting stress that may arise from pregnancy preparation, pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting processes. Notably, last year, the program was expanded and operated for a total of 200 people, identifying and linking 23 high-risk individuals through depression screening tests.

Furthermore, in the reality where it is difficult to raise children even after giving birth, to reduce parents’ childcare burdens and provide psychological stability, Yangcheon-gu implemented the ‘Yangcheon-style Overnight Emergency Care Daycare Center’ in March last year, the first of its kind among Seoul’s autonomous districts. This daycare center creates a childcare environment where working parents, single-parent families, and others can safely leave their children during late-night hours in emergencies such as sudden overnight work, business trips, accidents, or hospitalizations, thereby strengthening the public nature of childcare.

Lee Gijae, Mayor of Yangcheon-gu, stated, “Newborns born as precious lives on the first day of the new year are the bright future and hope of the Republic of Korea,” and added, “We will continue to actively strive to create a Yangcheon-gu that is good for raising children by continuously discovering childbirth and childcare policies that residents can feel.”