Soc Sci Med. 1988 ; 27(5): 497-504.

Childbearing in Korea.

Sich D.

Institute of Tropical Hygiene and Public Health, South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University, F.R.G.

Thirty pregnant women, their families and environment have been submitted to a prospective ethnographic study with inventory of childbearing behavior. The results were two-fold. They allowed on the one hand to reconstruct the traditional Korean birthing system. On the other they revealed an appalling amount of obstetrical pathology. Case examples permit to demonstrate the conflict between the modern and traditional birthing system and how this has adverse effects on the individual woman in the situation of uncontrolled cultural change.