MORE and more maternity hospitals in South Korea are forced to close due to reduced fertility rates.
South Korea’s total fertility rate, or average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime, came to a concerning 0.78 in 2022, which led to a wave of closure of maternity wards or obstetrics hospitals.
In the southwest corner of the country, the largest comprehensive maternity hospital in Gwangju, whose services included obstetrics, postpartum care, and pediatrics, closed on Sept 30 after struggling for years to make ends meet.
Gwangju is a city with a population of 1.4 million, but only 10 hospitals there have maternity wards.
Over the past decade, nearly 80 maternity hospitals in South Korea have shut down, marking the highest closure rate among all specialty hospitals.
Around 30 percent of the hospitals in the country have closed their obstetrician units.
Most of the closures happened in small and medium-sized cities like Gwangju, forcing pregnant women in rural areas to go to faraway cities to see doctors for prenatal check-ups and delivery.
In Seoul and the metropolitan area, maternity hospitals are always overwhelmed with patients coming from across the country.
“I live in Gyeonggi-do, but I did my check-ups at a maternity hospital in Seoul. I’m worried that more and more people will go to hospitals in Seoul or other big cities for check-up, which will make it troublesome to see doctors and get medical treatment,” resident of Gyeonggi.
South Korea is also experiencing a talent gap in obstetricians and gynecologists. In the second half of 2023, only 4 in every 52 students, or 7.7 percent of those who applied for medical schools, chose to major in obstetrics and gynecology.
Despite pouring over 200 billion U.S. dollars into subsidizing childcare, the South Korean government is expected to make more efforts to improve the facility of maternity hospitals or the treatment of obstetricians and gynecologists.
