Inside a Luxury Postnatal Care Center in Korea: A New York Times Reporter’s Experience

The New York Times cited South Korea’s postnatal care centers as a reason for its low birth rate.

The New York Times (NYT) on the 28th (local time) featured the experience of Loretta Charlton, a Seoul Bureau editor who recently gave birth in Korea and was admitted to a luxury postnatal care center in Gangnam.

Charlton detailed the services of the Gangnam postnatal care center where she stayed, citing high costs among the reasons for Korea’s low birth rate.

According to the media, the postnatal care center provides fresh meals three times daily, face and full-body massage services, and even classes for newborn care.

Charlton depicted a typical scenario at a postnatal care center, highlighting the luxury of sleep that mothers can avail themselves of. She detailed how, after a midnight feeding, a mother can return to her room for rest, entrusting the newborn to a nurse’s care. Emphasizing the center’s flexibility, Charlton noted that babies are generally kept in the newborn room throughout the day. Nurses contact mothers when it’s time for breastfeeding, giving them the option to breastfeed or opt-out, according to their preference.

She commented favorably that mothers can comfortably recover their tired bodies and minds after childbirth, thanks to the nurses who look after the newborns 24 hours a day.

However, she also noted that the competition to get into a postnatal care center is so fierce that if you don’t reserve as soon as pregnancy is confirmed, it’s hard to get in.

In particular, she drew attention to the fact that admission costs range from a minimum of several million won to tens of millions, depending on the length of stay.

In the case of the Gangnam postnatal care center where she stayed, she revealed that the cost of staying for two weeks is 8 million won, excluding the cost of various services such as face and full-body massages.

She also explained that while health insurance does not apply, you can apply for government support for postnatal care expenses, but it only covers a fraction of the total cost.

She also pointed out that the high cost of admission to a postnatal care center is a small part of the overall cost of raising a child in Korea, stating, “This will help explain Korea’s birth rate.”