Gyeonggi Province to Support Pregnant Women with 1 Million Won Transportation Subsidy Starting Next Year

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Kim Gap-dong] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 22nd that starting next year it will implement pregnancy and childbirth support policies that residents can feel, including providing 1 million won in transportation subsidies to pregnant women and raising postpartum care cost support from 500,000 won to 2 million won per person for second and subsequent births in childbirth-underserved areas.

The province revealed policies as part of the ongoing 'Gyeonggi Love Eye Project' aimed at developing population and low birth rate policies that residents can experience, which include △first-time parent school △checking pregnancy, childbirth and childcare information in your hand (through the Gyeonggi Ddok D app at once) △comfortable transportation to hospitals and transportation subsidies for pregnant women △sending birth congratulatory cards 'Gyeonggi Aideum Ppuk (Book)' △zero burden postpartum care in childbirth-underserved areas △multi-child families as public parking lot VIPs.

First, from August to November this year, the 'first-time parent school' will be operated to provide education to 55 couples expecting their first baby on pregnancy and childbirth processes, benefits of natural delivery, and father's baby care experience. The education conducted at the Northern Gyeonggi Region Infertility and Depression Counseling Center (Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital) will feature experts such as obstetrician-gynecologists and neonatal nurses as instructors. Recruitment for participation will be announced later through the Gyeonggi Province website.

Starting in October, congratulatory cards from the provincial governor will be delivered to childbirth families to share the joy of birth, and next year the province will implement a project to send pregnancy and childcare-related books to pregnant women.

Reflecting residents' opinions that while there are pregnancy, childbirth and childcare-related policies promoted by the government and local governments, they are difficult to find, a service to comprehensively provide information through the 'Gyeonggi Ddok D (app)' will be implemented starting in October to allow easy searching and application in one place. Gyeonggi Ddok D is an app based on My Data that provides customized information and issues resident cards (multi-child cards, etc.), and will provide services connecting pregnancy, childbirth and childcare information tailored to individuals with application procedures.

In addition, to resolve gaps in pregnancy and childbirth services, the province will support 1 million won in transportation costs per person for pregnant women living in six cities and counties with poor medical infrastructure in childbirth-underserved areas (Yeoncheon, Gapyeong, Yangpyeong, Anseong, Pocheon, and Yeoju) to facilitate comfortable travel to hospitals.

Through consultation with childbirth-underserved cities and counties, the province is reviewing a plan to increase the existing 500,000 won postpartum care cost provided per newborn to 1 million won for the first child and 2 million won for the second and subsequent children respectively to reduce postpartum care burden.

Transportation subsidy and increased postpartum care cost support are aimed at implementation next year following preliminary procedures such as consultation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare on social security systems.

The province will promote expanded parking fee discounts for households with two or more children when using public parking lots. Currently, the province is consulting with cities and counties to allow a 50% discount for two or more children to be changed to a 100% discount for two hours and a 50% discount for remaining hours. In addition, among six cities and counties that currently impose regional resident restrictions on fee discounts, four are planning to abolish the regional restriction conditions, and the province is pushing consultations with the remaining two cities and counties to remove restrictions.

Choi Hye-min, Gyeonggi Province's Policy Planning Director, stated, "We hope that this policy will be felt by residents, provide practical help, and become a positive force in the choice to have children and give birth," adding, "We will make every effort to prepare policies that can be solutions to the low birth rate crisis going forward."