Before he was born, we wanted a natural (vaginal) birth. South Korea has one of the highest rates of C-sections in the world (Gibbons, 2010, pg 18). We were wary about C-sections and how sometimes doctors in Korea suggest surgery even if it is unnecessary. Everything was going according to our plan... We took a gentle birthing class, something not very common in Korea. We also changed OB/GYN, because we felt that the hospital we were going to kind of felt like a baby assembly line. Doctor's visits were so short, maybe a couple of minutes at the most, and I felt that our doctor wasn't concerned with my questions.
As an aside, the medical system in Korea is really efficient and excellent. Everyone has healthcare by the single payer system, and it really is cheap and affordable. Basic care and basic visits are covered by a copayment of less than 5 US Dollars. And up to 80% of medicine costs are covered by insurance, so you usually end up paying a few dollars for your prescription. The downside is all of the prices of medical services are dictated by a board consisting of influential doctors and government officials. As a result, doctors are pressured to see lots of patients in a day and sometimes recommend a lot of expensive and unnecessary exams and procedures. And since doctors are revered here in Korea, the people ask no questions and completely trust doctors.
Because of this, my questions were not received very well. I grew up in the US and armed with google I went in with A LOT of questions. So everything was going well, but because of the Korean medical system, the doctors wanted us to come in often. Biweekly in the first trimester, once a month during the second trimester, and weekly in the third. We had a lot of sonograms. One per visit. For those of you in the States, what is the normal amount of sonograms?
Anyway, everything was going swimmingly until April 26th about 10 days from the expected due date. My wife calls me and says she's leaking something. We call the doc and she says to come in. We go in and she says its time. Arrgh. We are totally unprepared, because just that morning, we went in for an exam and she says there were no signs of labor at all and our son would probably be a little late.
So my wife checks into the hospital and they have to induce because her water broke but she isn't effaced or dilated at all. At this point, we are still determined to have a vaginal birth but 24 hours later... it is determined that she is not progressing fast enough and we opt for surgery. Less than an hour later, I met this guy.
Gibbons, L., Beliza, J., Lauer J., Betran A., Merialdi M., & Althabe F. (2010) The Global Number and Cost of Additionally Needed and Unnecessary Caesarean Sections Perfomed per Year: Overuse as a Barrier to Universal Coverage., World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/healthsystems/topics/financing/healthreport/30C-sectioncosts.pdf
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