Traditional concepts and customs on pregnancy, birth and post partum period in rural Korea

This paper presents some preliminary results of a more extensive study on traditional childbearing behavior in rural Korea and its relation to modern maternity and obstetrical care. It is the result of team work between an obstetrician, a medical sociologist and public health specialists. The geographic area of study was Kangwha District, Kyunggi Province, where C. Osgood did his anthropological study on “The Koreans and their Culture” in 1945 [1]. The study was motivated by the observation from literature, that in spite of economic progress, modernisation, and increased availability of care. the utilisation of modern obstetrical and maternity care in rural Korea had increased only little between 1969 and 1978. The findings from literature were supported by results in the maternity care component of the Yonsei University Kangwha Community Health Project. Aquisition of TV had risen faster than the utilisation of trained attendants at birth within the project area. To upraise the behavioral background for these findings a childbearing behavior study was done on 30 rural families with a pregnant woman throughout pregnancy, childbirth and post partum period. Traditional behavior and interactions with modern health services were documented. Information was obtained by open taped interviews with relevant persons in families, neighborhood and health services and by participant observation. The study was structured by a working paper with items for investigation obtained at first from literature and observation on traditional childbearing behavior. This was continually updated with new relevant information from the study. It became possible to identify a “traditional birthing system”. Some relevant aspects of this “traditional Korean birthing system” are presented in this paper: (1) traditional concepts about the physiology of childbearing; (2) course of pregnancy in the rural family; (3) observations on delivery; and (4) post partum concerns in the family.