[8][9][10] Completed in 1979, the hospital began operating on the 34th anniversary of the Law on Sex Equality on 30 July 1980.

[3][4][11] The hospital was praised as one of the best in mainland Northeast Asia after opening; the quality of maternity care in the country had improved since the 1940s and 1950s.

[12] Around 2005, nationwide attention was given to maternity hospitals and obstetric and gynecological departments to ensure that a larger proportion of women would receive in-hospital care for childbirth by competent medical staff.

[15][16] Health services are provided for childbirth, infertility, menstrual disorder, dystonia, chronic inflammatory disease, problems associated with pregnancy and cardiology, neurology, ophthalmology, dentistry, ear, nose and throat, and physiotherapy.

[4] North Korean sources claim that women's health care services can be provided via telemedicine to hospitals and clinics outside Pyongyang.

Achieving early diagnosis and regular cancer screening were goals set for the new medical services offered by the institute.

Common traditional treatments include cupping therapy, moxibustion, and acupuncture with and without electric charge.

[22] The hospital contains a unique system of visitor booths, which can be accessed directly from the ground floor,[23] to be used by fathers and other family members.

[2][12][24] Fathers and other visitors may not be in contact with mothers and babies for the first five days after birth,[23] and in the meantime use these booths.

[2][24] The Breast Cancer Research Center was featured on the local news in 2012 after it had received two advanced Siemens medical imaging scanners.

North Korea Tech speculated from the news that these were Artis and Somatom Emotion type medical scanners.

[34] Clothes, nutritious food and blankets are also given as gifts and receive further subsidies and care from an assigned medical worker until school age.

[24][35] The children and parents who bore a multiple birth of three or more are cared for in the hospital until they weigh four kilograms.

[34] Leader Kim Jong-un has visited and given field guidance at the hospital multiple times.

[18][19][36] For instance, premier Choe Yong Rim and other party officials attended the opening ceremony of the Breast Cancer Research Center's new wing on 8 October 2012.

[41][42] Some members of the Namibian delegation led by President Sam Nujoma visited the hospital in November 2000.

[43] Our Warm House, a North Korean medical drama television series filmed in 2000, was set in Pyongyang Maternity Hospital.

However, South Pyongan Provincial Maternity Hospital, a new candidate for the award, did not meet the breastfeeding standards.