In a nation contending with the world's lowest fertility rate — 0.72 births per woman in 2023, according to Statistics Korea — Songpa District in southern Seoul has emerged as a notable exception, recording the highest number of newborns among all of the capital's districts. To maintain this trend, district officials are moving beyond conventional financial subsidies and turning their attention to a growing but frequently underserved segment of the population: multicultural and immigrant families.

On Monday, the Songpa District Office announced a specialized, hands-on parenting program tailored for marriage immigrants and foreign-born expectant parents. The two-hour intensive workshop is scheduled for August 27 at the Songpa Maternal and Child Health Promotion Center. Its objective is to bridge the language and cultural gaps that often leave foreign parents feeling isolated during pregnancy and childbirth.

The initiative arrives at a pivotal moment. While South Korea's broader demographic decline continues to dominate national headlines, urban centers are home to increasingly diverse populations. The number of multicultural households in South Korea has steadily increased, with the Justice Ministry reporting more than 2.5 million registered foreign residents as of 2023. Foreign-born mothers, however, frequently face significant challenges in navigating Korea's distinctive postnatal care customs and medical infrastructure, including the widely practiced tradition of sanhujori — structured postpartum recovery centered on specialized care centers that have no direct equivalent in many countries. By providing customized instruction, Songpa District officials said they hope to translate complex medical guidance into practical, approachable care.

The workshop will be led by certified infant care specialists who will guide couples step by step through the fundamentals of newborn care. Interactive exercises will cover swaddling techniques, safe holding postures, breastfeeding, burping, infant bathing, and interpreting newborn cries. The district is strongly encouraging both spouses to participate together, fostering a shared approach to early childhood care from the very beginning.

Eligibility is open to immigrant families residing in Songpa District as well as Korean citizens returning after extended periods abroad. Online registration opens Monday through the Seoul Metropolitan Government's official pregnancy and childbirth portal (), with available slots allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

District Mayor Seo Kang-seok underscored that constructing a genuinely family-friendly city depends on meeting the nuanced needs of every resident. Through its dedicated maternal center, Songpa continues to broaden localized public health services designed to reduce the barriers to parenthood.

"I hope this program provides practical help to marriage immigrants expecting a child and their spouses as they welcome new life in an unfamiliar environment," Seo said. "We will continue to thoughtfully expand a wide range of childbirth and child-rearing support initiatives to make Songpa District an even better place to raise children."

As regional governments across South Korea intensify efforts to reverse the country's declining birth rate — a national challenge that has persisted despite the central government allocating hundreds of billions of dollars to pro-natal policies over nearly two decades — Songpa's targeted strategy illustrates how local policy is adapting to serve an increasingly diverse parent demographic. Programs like this one may also serve as reference points for other districts evaluating how to reach multicultural families who often fall outside the design of mainstream family-support services.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.