[KS] RE: gynecologists

[Kaliher, Kenneth L.]

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It is my impression from decades of (admittedly second-hand) observation
that a significant number of Korea's Caesarian births are due to the
mothers'/parents'/mothers-in-law's desire to induce a child's birth on a
particularly propitious date, for fortune tellers' future favorable
reference.

As for Korean hospitals in which foreigners (and, presumably, other
expectant mothers) might feel comfortable, I would also suggest checking out
the Samsung Hospital on the southern edge of Seoul.  It may be too late for
Henny's wife to make a switch, but several foreign acquaintances have had
very high praise for the int'l clinic staff there, in particular their
attentiveness to Western patients' desire to have treatments and regimens
explained in detail, and their general familiarity with Western medical
practices.  (Many of the doctors are U.S.-trained.)  Again, I am luckily
without first-hand experience there, but to date have heard only high praise
for the hospital and its staff.

The Foreigners' Counseling Service in Seoul (FOCUS, 797-8212) also maintains
a list of medical facilities, and offers its members emergency telephone
medical consultations with its on-call medical specialists.  

Ken Kaliher
Seoul
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	At 11:50 PM 8/29/00, Dr. John Caruso Jr. wrote:
		>
		>Given your negative experiences with a Korean OBGYN, in
which country 
		>(other than Korea) will your wife give birth?

	We finally found a OBGYN who was willing to do it our way, but we
have to travel quite far, so I guess as soon she feels any contractions we
just have to go and hope they are the final ones. Didn't you know that
airplane companies don't fly pregnant women past their 6th month? So we have
no choice, unless we want to go by boat.

	At 12:08 AM 8/30/00, Carlon Haas wrote:

		> From my Korean friends' experience, they found the doctors
in Korea are > very fond of cessarian births.  They think it has to do with
the fact > that it is more expensive than natural brith.  But it is strange
that a > large number of Korean women are told to have this procedure done.
So, > if your wife didn't have to go through that, then I think you're >
(actually she's) rather lucky.
		>
		>I once found statistics about this sort of thing and if I
can fidn them >again I'll post the.

	Please do, since I am very curious, I think there are some doctors
willing to change, but the demand for their service is that big, that they
have some strange rules as well. First you have to go through a program,
(for which of course you have to pay) even when my wife said, that I
couldn't speak Korean, they wanted to make that obligatory.

	-----------------------------
	Henny  (Lee Hae Kang)

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