I have not had much chance to keep up with current issues in Korea as my daughter was born on the 28th June, just before 2am. What should have been an amazing day ended up being a complete nightmare. The most efficient way for me to tell this tale is to repost an email I sent out to all and sundry after the baby was born. I was VERY tired when I wrote this:
What a day I had yesterday!
7:30 PM and the missus woke with evil contractions. They were every 5 minutes, and were stopping her dead in her tracks. I called work and got ready to take her to the hospital.
After she insisted on doing housework and taking a bath before we left, we never got to the hospital until around 10:30. The first thing we were told was that our doctor was at a seminar all day and could not be contacted. No biggie though right? Wrong! The bastards were trying to tell us, in their round about way, that we had to wait for our doctor because no other docs wanted to deal with the headache of labour when our regular doc had made all the money from the relatively easy monthly/weekly check-ups.
We were told that she was not in labour, and that we should come back on Monday. We had an appointment to be induced on Saturday, so this was a bit off. We were told that this was not a good idea, because the hospital is understaffed on the weekends, and they are not sure if out doc would be there. She better fucking be!
The missus had a pre-natal class at 1pm, so we went for lunch and she went to piss before going to class. She noticed that she was bleeding heavily. We went to the delivery ward again, and they were quick to offer a solution. They handed over a sanitary towel, and told us to come back on Monday. Bastards!!!
The nurse at the class saw the state the missus was in, and went apeshit. She managed to get hold of out doc, who in turn went ape. She was planning to come in on Saturday to induce and stay with us for as long as it all took. She ordered the delivery ward to take her in, and to start induction at 10pm, so our doc could attend the birth first thing.
I left at 6:30, to go and grab a few hours sleep, as were told that there was no way she was in labour, despite the pains being much stronger and much longer. I got home, cooked some food and before I started to eat I had a call from the wife: The baby was coming, and I was to get to the hospital. Fantastic. I ate and showered in 15 minutes, and was there 45 minutes after that.
The baby was coming, and the night nurses were doing their best to ignore the fact. When they did come in to assist, they did little more than get the wife to hold her legs open, and then they PUSHED DOWN ON HER STOMACH!!! It was more like squeezing a tube of toothpaste than delivering a baby. The missus was in agony.
We had signed all the paperwork saying that I would be present for the birth and would cut the cord. They obviously didn’t want a foreigner in the room though – at one point they shoved me outside and drew the curtains. Fuckers. I was trying to get a friend to translate, but they heard my complaints and let me back in. Then I was handed a phone saying that the baby was coming out sideways and they needed my consent for an emergency C-Section. I gave it, and off they went.
The baby was born at 1:57am local time. I saw her 13 minutes later, was allowed to hold her and then she was taken to the nursery whilst I dealt with checking her into the hospital, and the country. I had a minor spat about them giving her a foreigner ID number, but that was fixed. Fuckers. Could have screwed her future up if that was allowed to go unchecked. She would have been ineligible for any Korean schooling, medical care, etc, with a foreigner number.
Mum came to at 4am. She was wheeled into the new private room that had finally become available. She was groggy, but wanted to know about the baby as she had not seen her or been told anything. Thankfully I had a picture to show her, and we then got 4 hours sleep. At 8am the baby also moved in the room with us (they are not allowed on the public wards, which is why we are paying for a private room).
The wife is determined to get up and about. I am determined to keep her in bed as long as possible. It should be an interesting few weeks.
I stayed at home on the Monday evening (I had to feed the cat, etc), and on the Tuesday morning I had a call from my wife. Some of the hospital staff had told her in the small hours that they need to take the baby for 7 days. And that was all! I made my way up there and had to try and get answers from the arrogant bastard doctors who feel that they should should never be questioned. The baby was jaundiced. This is perfectly normal in newborn children, but in a country where hospitals consider profit a priority and the desires of the patients come way behind the desire to profit, the hospital were quick to over-react.
They initially promised my wife that she could nurse the baby at feeding time, yet when she went to feed she was told that the hospital had fed her formula! They simultaneously decided that this meant there would be no reason for mother to visit daughter except between the hours of 1:30 and 2pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
It took me 9 hours of constant harassment before I got any information regarding her condition or her treatment. When I was questioning them, almost every reply was “Don’t worry, insurance pay”. They did not seem to comprehend that we wanted out child with us unless it was absolutely necessary for her to be separated from us.
On Wednesday, I was back at school. Thankfully, it was time for final exams and so I was able to leave early so that I could have my 30 minute visit. The wife was also being checked out and would be able to come home.
We had our visit, and I instantly picked up the medical records and checked them against the information we had been given. We were lied to about the severity of her condition (the level of Bilirubin in her system never went over 13mg, and we were told it was over 20mg. 25mg is usually considered high enough to warrant treatment, but anything under 20 is normal in a newborn) and the treatment she was receiving (we were told she was receiving 20 hours of phototherapy per day, when in fact she was receiving just 1 hour). Medical records at the hospital we visited are all kept in English, so it was very easy for me to understand. For once, I felt as though I had some control over things and immediately called the pediatrician over so that I could question her. In typically Korean fashion, she did not want to admit being caught out, so she simply altered the medical records. I was furious.
I got the wife home without much fuss, and managed to complete my final day at work (the Thursday) with minimal fuss. I went to the hospital for out Friday visit determined that our child was coming home the following weekend regardless of what anybody thought! I registered her birth with the British Embassy in the morning and we had our visit. Despite the doctor claiming that she needed 20 hours of phototherapy per day for 7 days, her records now showed that they had not performed any treatment on her for 2 days. I asked when she could come home and was told Sunday. Apparently, they had to perform a blood test on Saturday and would then give the all clear for her to come home. When I asked why we could not take her home on Saturday, I was told (in English) “Sunday is better for you”. Erm… no it isn’t!
Our child came home on Saturday, and my wife was upset because she did not take to nursing after being formula fed for the past few days. Thankfully, a little starving sorted out that problem and now my wife is content.
The hospital billed us for 1.7m won ($1,700, or £850) for the delivery and the room, whilst claiming another 6m won ($6,000 or £3,000) from my insurance. I am convinced that the only reason our child was taken from us was in order to claim the extra 600,000 won ($600, £300) from the insurance for the child care.
Still, all is well now. Or rather, it would be if the sister-in-law hadn’t taken it upon herself to be “helpful” and move in for a few weeks… but that’s another rant!
PS. If anybody is looking to have a child in the Northern Gyeonggi-do area anywhere soon, fire an email off to me and I will let you know to avoid this place. Unfortunately, Korean libel laws being what they are, I would probably be sued if I were to publicly name them!
