Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lolacatessan]

My husband and I live in Mokpo (Jeollanamdo) and are thinking of eventually having kids in Korea. I was just wondering what it's like (versus having them in your home country).

Would we need to move to Seoul to get an English-speaking OB-GYN?
What are the exams like? Any different here in Korea?
What about delivery?
What are Koreans' reactions to pregnant foreigners?
How much does your health insurance cover?
What if only your husband is working and you're not?
What about citizenship?
Cost of baby things here?
Immunizations?

I know that's a lot of questions but any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time

[ttompatz]

[jeffkim1972]

Mokpo has a brand new hospital for women and babies. Whatever you call one of those hospitals. They specialize in delivery babies.

미즈아이병원

You might want to stop by there to inquire about some of your concerns.

[jaganath69]

My wife was and everything was pretty straight forward. If you have any more specific questions not answered by the others, feel free to PM me.

[GoldMember]

If I was a pregnant foreigner, I'd be worth millions. Talk shows, books, movies, special appearances. Then again I don't think I'd like being treated like a freak.

Hold on a second, I'm not pregnant, I'm a foreigner, I'm in Korea, I'm still treated like a Freak!

[tzechuk]

Similar to Jaga, except I was the one pregnant... haha.. there are quite a lot of ladies on here who have been pregnant or are currently pregnant in Korea.

I will attempt to answer your questions, but if you have more specific stuff, ask again.. here or pm.

1. Nope. You should be able to find one that speaks a bit of English.

2. The exams - where do I even begin! They LOVE ultrasounds!!!! I had one done during each and every visit.. which was great for me. haha.. cos Letty (in my avatar picture) was and is my only child and I was a worry-wot, so I wanted to know constantly to make sure. Otherwise, they do the usual.. at least mine did... blood test during the first trimester.. then other tests like the glucose test. etc. to follow in the second half of the second trimester and the beginning of the third.

3. I had a great delivery, all natural.. but be warned, Korean doctors prefer c-sections.. not necessarily for medical reasons but more because of $$$.

4. Hmmm... well, most Koreans are happy to see you pregnant. Period. I am actually British Chinese, so I do look Korean in a way (some say I do, some say not.. it's an ongoing debate.. haha) and when I was pregnant, a kind lady held her umbrella over my head because it had started to drizzle and I didn't have my umbrella. She walked all the way to my destination with me just so I wouldn't *get wet and catch a cold*, according to her.

5. Health insurance covers quite a lot - I think 80%. We paid just 400,000 for 2 nights 3 days, including the delivery.

6. Makes no difference. If one of you only is working, then the other is covered under your NHIns. You get exactly the same benefits.

7. What about citizenship? Is one of you Korean? Or are you both foreign? You won't get Korean citizenship just because your child is born here, if that's what you mean. What you need to do is to refer back to your country's embassy to see what they do about registration. For the UK, we had to register our daughter within 14 days or something.

8. Cost of baby things can be expensive or cheap. Expensive if you buy from the big department stores - they overprice EVERYTHING. We bought most of our stuff over the internet. I will send you links if you want. Supermarkets are OK when they do their weekly sales and you happen to need that particular item.

Alternatively, if you don't mind using second hand things, there are people here always trying to sell baby stuff.

9. Immunisations - a lot of people do not know this.. even Koreans don't know, but standard immunisations are covered by your national health and you get these done, not at a private clinic, cos they charge you, but at your local government health centre (boh-gohn-soh). If you want extra things, you have to go to a private clinic, but they are even offering chicken pox and japanese malaria thingy as options now, free of charge. We did Letty's BCG at a clinic and that was 50,000 won but apparently NHIns doesn't cover that anyway, so it made no difference.

---------

What you need to worry isn't so much about jabs.. but finding a GOOD, RELIABLE, *STABLE* (i.e. one that doesn't move away without informing you first!!!) paediatrician. For us, it was a HUGE issue cos when your baby is so small, you want to be able to trust your paed... we thought we found one but he moved away without telling us.. so we ended up just going back to our GP, which was OK. He is actually a very good doctor, as far as Korean doctors go!!!!!

Good luck!!!

[whatever]

On a related note, if you'd like to be a pregnant foreigner, PM me.

[Hyeon Een]

Some more "It'll be OK":

I was good friends with a couple who had a baby in Gwangyang (which is also in South Jeolla). They got a private room in a nice maternity hospital at a 50% discount because they were foreign. The room was great (I've visited public hospital rooms in Britain and this was wayyyy better) and they had a great doctor. They had no problems, and had a lot of input into care at all levels (pre/during/post birth).

If my little lady was giving birth any time soon, I'd be happier with her having it there, in Gwangyang, than I would in the average hospital in the UK.

There are also some rubbish hospitals in Korea. Terrible ones. So do your homework first =)

[Roch]

[lolacatessan]

hey- thanks everyone! all the info you've sent is very helpful. just so you know, i'm NOT pregnant yet but i wanted to get a lot of info before i do get pregnant (which may be in a couple years).

here's a link someone sent me and i thought i'd post it on here for everyone else. it's a forum just for married and/or pregnant foreigners in korea:

[/url]
http://www.eslcafe.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?f=52

[simone]

I *am* a pregnant foreigner. I go on maternity leave next thursday, unless she decides to arrive early.

[lolacatessan]

[simone]

[ttompatz]

I would like to add that there is lots of baby stuff here that doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg.

There are a couple of larger buildings in Namdaemun that only carry baby stuff. We also got some stuff off of auction.co.kr.

We got onezies and sleepers for 3k-5k, t-shirts for 2k-3k, stroller was 40k, baby swing 80k, bottles were 3k each (with newborn nipple), breast pump was 10k.

We got our crib used (small version and like new) and I think 60k.

You can also shop in the boutiques and spend 10x that much so it is all about your budget.

[tzechuk]