Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Jensen]

Congrats and best of luck. This won't be much help, but the topic brings back memories. I've probably told this story on other threads, sorry if it's repetitive. It's been long enough it might well change some in the telling too...

We had a decent experience at Cha hospital (seoul...south) where my son was born 11 years ago. The Dr. was intelligent, spoke a little English, and could answer questions without getting his panties in a bunch. He even took my advice when things were running a little late that he just wait a bit rather than induce labor. I regret that the only paperwork we kept was a birth certificate...we don't have anything with the doc's name on it. My wife liked sharing a recovery room with a lot of other ladies, and overall rated the experience much better than our daughter's birth at a mid-wife facililty attached to a small hospital in Utah. The midwives there were stupid and bossy...truly beyond belief, and the supervising doc was a lazy *beep*.

Not to be overly dramatic, but I don't recommend home birth to anyone. I watched my wife nearly bleed to death in the hospital shortly after our daughter was born. t is fucking incredible how fast a hemmorage like that happens and I will never forget looking over at her just as she went unconcious and the pool of blood spread out across the delivery table. If that had happened at home she would have died.

The nurses at Cha were brusque and ignorant, didn't believe in colostrum or that a man would know of such a thing if it did exist, and they locked the kid up in the nursery right off. Fortunately we stretched the system (got in an illicit breast-feeding or some such thing) and got out in less than 24 hours.

[intergalactic]

Chonbuk,
Great to hear from you. We often wonder how you are doing in Sydney. Thanks for your great tips, I will check out that link, it sounds interesting.
So you are living in Newtown? Lucky you, I would love to be there right now! I feel great about the being pregnant and meeting a new small person side of things. It feels pretty nice to feels these bubbley baby movements throughout the day. But I am a bit s*itty about not being able to waltz into a clinic and say "Oh great, you do everything I want you to do? Let's have the baby here!"
Mr. Intergalactic is very busy these days working, giving me nightly back massages and recording a new dabang C.D.
How long will you be in Sydney?

OiGirl, you are right. I was thinking of unassisted birth and forgetting the midwife side of things. I know in Australia it is legal, but becoming more and more difficult to get a midwife because of the huge insurance premiums they have to pay.

Jensen, thanks for the good wishes and the horror story!! OK, I won't have a home birth!