North Korea promotes maternity protection policy amid low birthrate

Nurses care for babies at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital in this Nov. 21, 2023 file photo captured from footage of North Korea's state-run Korean Central Television. Yonhap

North Korea on Tuesday promoted its maternity protection policy amid its low birthrate, saying the country provides pregnant women with pre-and post-natal care services 11 times.

The Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, said the country held an event to mark the International Day of the Midwife at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital the previous day.

In 1992, the International Confederation of Midwives designated May 5 as the International Day of the Midwife and has celebrated it annually.

Citing a participant in the event, the newspaper stressed the need to offer "good environment and conditions" to pregnant women, those who delivered a child, and their babies and highlighted midwives' role in protecting their health.

Naenara, a propaganda media outlet, also promoted the country's maternity protection policy, saying that ordinary pregnant women are receiving pre-natal care services six times and post-natal ones five times.

"Those considered in a high-risk group are taking antenatal care in an unlimited number of times for safe childbirths," it said, citing an official at the maternity hospital in Pyongyang.

North Korea is suffering from low childbirths, prompting its leader Kim Jong-un to call for measures to prevent a fall in the country's birthrate at the first national meeting of mothers in 11 years in December last year.

North Korea's total fertility rate — the number of children that are expected to be born to a woman over her lifetime — came to 1.8 in 2023, according to data posted on the website of the U.N. Population Fund.

North Korea's maternal mortality ratio, the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 newborns, came to 107 in 2020, down from 186 in 2020, according to the "Trends in Maternity Mortality 2000 to 2020" report estimated by the World Health Organization and other U.N. agencies.

The figure compared with eight for South Korea in 2020. (Yonhap)