Cheong Wa Dae seeks fairer priority system for postpartum care centers

Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday it will consider revising the law to ensure greater fairness and rationality in prioritizing access to postpartum care centers.

Postpartum care centers, where new mothers stay and recover after childbirth, are popular in South Korea. Those subsidized by local governments, in particular, face intense competition for reservations because they charge relatively low fees.

The issue drew media attention after President Lee Jae Myung shared an online community post on his X account Wednesday, which questioned whether mothers from multicultural families and mothers recognized as persons of national merit should be placed in the same second-priority category for reservations at Seoul-style postpartum care centers.

Lee said the government would conduct an in-depth review, including consultations with local governments and possible legal amendments, to determine whether there is a compelling need to provide multicultural families with preferential treatment.

In response, Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday it would consider revising the enforcement decree of the Mother and Child Health Act to ensure that priority access is given to mothers in greater need of postpartum care services.

Lim Ho-geun, a presidential secretary for population policy, said in a statement that the president’s social media post highlighted the need to make the priority system for postpartum care centers fairer and more rational, ensuring that all families who have recently welcomed a child view the support system as equitable and reasonable.

“The criteria for determining priority access to postpartum care centers under the enforcement decree were established 10 years ago. The president believes it is necessary to reexamine the rules in light of the expansion of policy support for multicultural families since then,” Lim said.

Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung also said in a press notice that Lee’s message was not a call to withdraw support for multicultural families, but rather an emphasis on the need to improve the fairness and rationality of the priority system for postpartum care centers.