A study on all pregnant women had normal delivery in the Institute of Mother and Infant protection and care in 1999 has shown that the rate of uteral revision was high (68%) comparing with this of international and domestic data. The primarily finding showed that there was a relation between the uteral revision and some factors such as history of sponteneous abortion, induced abortion, fetal age, and amniotic rupture time. The indication for uteral revision due to the bleeding was highest (41.1%).
women ; History ; Delivery, Obstetric ; pregnant women

Ye Feng composed what was to become one of the most famous and widely-circulating medical works of the late imperial period, the Treatise on Easy Childbirth(1715). Ye Feng proposed the idea of natural childbirth, When the correct moment for birth had arrived, the child would leave its mother's body as easily as "a ripe melon drops from the stem". He argued attempts to facilitate birth were therefore not only unnecessary, and female midwives artificial intervention was not required. However, this view is to overlook the pangs of childbirth, and women bear responsibility for the failure of delivery. So his views reflect the gender order in male-dominated. Also he constructed the negative image of the midwife and belittle her childbirth techniques. As a result, midwife are excluded from the childbirth field, male doctors grasp guardianship rights of the female body. Ye Feng declared that the key to safe and successful delivery could be summed up in just a few words: "sleep, endure the pain, delay approaching the birthing tub". This view must be consistent with the Confucian norms, women to export to equip the 'patience' and 'self-control'. These norms were exposed desire men want to monitor and control the female body, effect on consolidation of patriarchal family order. In sum, the discourse of "a ripe melon drops from the stem" and "sleep, endure the pain, delay approaching the birthing tub" comprised an important intellectual resource that male doctors drew on to legitimate themselves as superior overseers of women's gestational bodies.
China ; Confucianism ; Delivery, Obstetric/*history ; Female ; History, 18th Century ; Humans ; Midwifery/*history ; Natural Childbirth/*history ; Pregnancy ; *Reference Books, Medical

Through the cases of approximately 80 females in the case records of traditional physician Yi Sugwi (1664-1740?), the present study divided and reclassified the lives and diseases of females during the latter half of the Joseon Dynasty into childhood, obstetrics- and gynecology-related problems in adulthood, other diseases in adulthood, and old age and analyzed them. According to the results, female children were treated less preciously than were male children so that treatments by traditional physicians were sought out less when they were ill than in the case of male children, and acute infectious diseases were the most serious health problems. In the process of receiving treatment from traditional physicians as adults, females came in contact with traditional physicians, who were male, when necessary including face-to-face sessions and the reception of pulse examination but the yangban (literati-official) class practiced sex segregation as much as possible while the lower classes were considerably free from such restrictions. For female adults, the most serious health issues were pregnancy and childbirth so that they received help from traditional physicians and midwives when there were problems. Traditional physicians determined females' pregnancy and the health of fetuses and pregnant women through pulse examinations and medication and actively responded to diverse problems that surfaced in the process with medication and other treatments. Acute infectious diseases, too, were serious diseases suffered by females, and problems involving cold damage and the digestive system were among diseases frequently suffered by females in adulthood and old age. In old age, females often became ill in the arduous process of dealing with the deaths of adult descendants, siblings, and spouses, and tumors were among the major causes of their deaths. The deaths of those aged 70 or above were accepted as quite natural. Aged females endeavored to maintain their health and played the role of elders giving care to their descendants.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Communicable Diseases/etiology/*history/therapy ; Delivery, Obstetric/*history ; Female ; Gynecology/*history ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea ; Middle Aged ; Obstetrics/*history ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: The aim of our study is to identify the demographic changes of maternal age distribution in live births and incidence of low birth weight infants in advanced maternal age (> or =35 years of age) group at the time of birth in Korea. METHODS: Birth statistics in 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2008 were collected from Korean Statistical Information Service. Based on the data, total births in each group were 715,000, 634,000, 435,000, and 465,000, respectively. Maternal age distribution ranged from the age of 15 to 50, which were all fertile women. Infants were divided into groups according to birth weight. After maternal age distribution of each year and proportion of advanced maternal age group were examined, a retrospective analysis was conducted on incidence of low birth weight infant (LBWI) in advanced age pregnancy. RESULTS: Number of live births was constantly decreasing during the period of investigation. There was a shift in maternal age distribution; fertile women of the age of 25 to 29 accounted for 54.2% and 51.7% in 1995 and 2000 respectively, whereas those of the age 30 to 34 accounted for 40.8% and 42.7% in 2005 and 2008, respectively. Rate of delivery in elderly gravida were 4.8%, 6.9%, 10.8%, 14.5% in 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2008 respectively, showing a rapid increase. Of the live births, LBWI accounted for 3.0%, 3.8%, 4.3%, 4.9%, thus being increased by about 1.5 times. Overall, with rates of 7.8%, 10.3%, 15.2%, 19.0%, respectively, the proportion of advanced maternal age group with resultant LBWI was higher than that of elderly gravida alone. CONCLUSION: While there has been a constant decrease in number of live births in the last decade in Korea, proportion of advanced maternal age group is rapidly increasing and incidence of LBWI is also gradually increasing. Furthermore, considering that the incidence of LBWI among elderly gravida was increased by a higher degree than proportion of elderly gravida in maternal age distribution, maternal age can be one of the factors causing LBWI.
Aged ; Birth Weight ; Delivery, Obstetric ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant ; Infant, Low Birth Weight ; Infant, Newborn ; Information Services ; Korea ; Live Birth ; Maternal Age ; Parturition ; Reproductive History ; Retrospective Studies