Two years on, 409 at-risk mothers choose to raise their own children under protected birth program

Case 1: A pregnant woman who had not known she was expecting gave birth the same day she visited a hospital. Worried about conflict with her family, she applied for a protected birth. After counseling with a local support agency, she told her parents about the birth, withdrew her protected-birth application during the reflection period and is now raising the child herself.

Case 2: A child born through a protected birth in 2024 was placed in temporary government care before being adopted and is now growing up healthy with a new family.

Of the pregnant women who received counseling in the two years since the at-risk pregnancy protected birth program took effect, 409 decided to raise their children within their own families, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced Sunday.

The ministry released the figures to mark the second anniversary of the program's launch.

The protected birth program allows at-risk pregnant women to receive medical care and give birth under a pseudonym, while providing counseling to help them raise their children themselves.

Children born through the program are placed under state protection and may request access to a birth certificate containing their birth information once they reach adulthood.

According to the ministry, 18,088 counseling sessions were conducted for 4,251 at-risk pregnant women from the program's launch date of July 19, 2024, through the end of June this year.

Of the 4,251 women, 726 received in-depth counseling, and as a result 409 chose to raise their children within their own families.

Sixty-two women chose adoption after registering the birth, while 206 applied for a protected birth. Of those, 47 withdrew their protected-birth applications following a mandatory reflection period of at least seven days and additional counseling.

The number of newborns abandoned after birth has trended downward since the program took effect.

Abandoned newborns fell from 88 in 2023 to 30 in 2024 and 19 last year.

The ministry is conducting its first full review of the program since its launch and plans to use the findings to assess overall operations and improve effectiveness.

Any at-risk pregnant woman can access counseling by phone or KakaoTalk chat.

Kim Hyun-sook, the ministry's director general for population and child policy, said the ministry would "continue to reflect feedback from the field and strengthen the capacity of local counseling agencies, so that at-risk pregnant women receive appropriate support when they need it and both mothers and children are protected."