“Is This Price for Real?”…Postpartum Care Centers Costing Hundreds of Thousands Now at ‘250,000 Won for 2 Weeks’

Starting January next year, residents living in the district for over one year will be eligible

Massage room at Seodaemun-gu Public Postpartum Care Center. Provided by Seodaemun-gu.

Seodaemun-gu, Seoul (Mayor Lee Seongheon) announced on the 23rd that starting January next year, residents who have lived in the district for more than one year will receive a 90% discount on the basic usage fee of Seodaemun-gu’s public postpartum care center, ‘Pumae (愛) Gadeuk’.

Accordingly, eligible residents will be able to receive postpartum care services for two weeks at a fee of 250,000 KRW. The basic usage fee is 2.5 million KRW for two weeks. Residents who have lived in Seodaemun-gu for less than one year will receive a 20% discount and pay 2 million KRW, while residents living outside Seodaemun-gu will pay the full basic usage fee of 2.5 million KRW.

Currently, the first priority group, ‘vulnerable residents who have lived in the district for more than one year,’ pay 1.25 million KRW after a 50% discount, and the second priority group, ‘residents who have lived in the district for more than one year,’ pay 2 million KRW after a 20% discount. The third priority group, ‘residents who have lived in the district for less than one year,’ pay the full basic usage fee of 2.5 million KRW, and the fourth priority group (allowed when capacity is not full), residents living outside the district, pay 2.75 million KRW, which is 110% of the basic fee.

The ‘more than one year residence’ criterion means that as of the expected delivery date, the pregnant woman or her spouse has continuously registered their residence in Seodaemun-gu for more than one year and is actually living there.

Seodaemun-gu’s public postpartum care center ‘Pumae (愛) Gadeuk’ covers a total floor area of 1,351㎡ with one basement floor and four above-ground floors, and opened in December last year. In addition to rooms for mothers and newborns, it features a pre-observation room, breastfeeding room, massage room, counseling room, education room, cafeteria, and other state-of-the-art facilities. The center provides optimal postpartum care services through nurses, nursing assistants, administrative staff, cooking staff, and skincare personnel, receiving high praise from mothers.

‘Pumae (愛) Gadeuk’ focuses not only on providing professional health care services for mothers and newborns but also on strengthening parental capabilities through customized education. The educational programs include baby bathing methods, soothing a crying baby, breastfeeding techniques, self-management of postpartum depression, newborn care with dads, and making attachment dolls.

Applications can be submitted through the Seodaemun-gu public postpartum care center website three months before the expected delivery date, and selection is made by public lottery. For more details, please contact the Seodaemun-gu public postpartum care center.

Lee Seongheon, Mayor of Seodaemun-gu, said, “I hope this fee reduction will help improve the difficult reality of having children even a little, and we will strive further to create a child-friendly environment.”

Seongheon Lee, the district mayor, is visiting the Seodaemun-gu Public Postpartum Care Center, inspecting the facilities and receiving explanations. Provided by Seodaemun-gu.