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Amid the clamor about Korea¡¯s low birth rate, women who cannot, rather than do not want to, have children are being forgotten.
One out of seven Korean couples suffers infertility and four out of 10 pregnant women experience miscarriages, but few hospitals provide quality services for them. Even large institutions like university hospitals show little concern for them.
The Chosun Ilbo found that none of the country¡¯s Top 10 hospitals has a special examination room for women who miscarry, let alone a special delivery room, with the result that sufferers find their plight brutally brought home by being treated next to healthy mothers and surrounded by newborn babies. Although most of them have an infertility clinic, only three have a separate waiting room and examination room.
Asked why not, most hospitals offer the same answer: that it is unrealistic to provide separate facilities for the ¡°small¡± number of sufferers. ¡°Whether patients have problems with miscarriage, infertility and delivery, they are all the same to doctors,¡± a hospital official said. ¡°So there is no reason to use separate rooms. Moreover, most patients are normal pregnant women and only a fraction of patients have problems.¡±
That is not necessarily true. At the request of infertile women, Gangseo MizMedi launched a separate facility this month. ¡°With a little consideration from the doctors, patients can be spared uncomfortable moments such as being injected for a miscarriage operation at an injection room with new-born babies or having the operation in a delivery room,¡± the hospital said.
Bundang MediPark Hospital also set up a special OR for patients who miscarry. A chief nurse at the hospital said, ¡°It does not take much money to show some consideration for infertile patients such as arranging a separate entrance or OR and recovery rooms.¡± The biggest problem is the attitude of nurses and doctors whose professionalism does not include empathy with patients, she said, with the result being insult added to injury.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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