Also prevalent in South Korea's education-obsessed society is the view that squeezing the baby's head through the birth canal risks dulling the child's intelligence, ultimately hurting the youngster's chances of getting into a prestigious university.
"The important thing is to eradicate these myths," says Kim Sang Hee, director of WomenLink, a South Korean nonprofit group.
Saju, Korea's art of numerology derived from ancient Chinese practices, is another culprit. Superstitious mothers-to-be visit saju masters for advice on the best days to give birth to children who will be healthy, wealthy and wise. Armed with the input, they request caesareans.
Saju master Kim Kwang Il says four or five expectant mothers visit him each month for a reading. Saju is not absolute, he says, and must be tempered by the reading of a person's face.
"But you want to avoid bad saju," he adds. "If the child is due to be born on a bad date, you want to change that. It's natural--no parent wants anything bad for their child."
Kang Hye Sook, a 40-year-old mother of twin boys, used saju to decide her due date. "I don't regret having a caesarean, but sometimes the scar itches on rainy or cloudy days," she says. "I hear that means the baby was scared of the anesthetic."
Women's groups have been at the forefront in trying to not only reduce the nation's high caesarean rate but also change South Korea's "birth culture." All too often, they say, a largely male medical establishment has treated childbirth more like a disease than a joyous event to be shared by the entire family.
WomenLink advocates greater involvement by husbands--a relatively new concept in South Korea's traditionally male-dominated society--plus an expanded role for mothers in medical decisions and less stressful birthing environments than the traditional cold steel and harsh lighting found in the average delivery room.
"The joke is that doctors think they own the baby rather than the mother," says Myung Jin Sook, the group's secretary-general.
Raising Awareness of Alternative Methods
The media also have helped raise awareness by publicizing the risks of caesareans and outlining alternative delivery methods new to South Korea, including birthing in water.
The publicity has resulted in more women questioning doctors when told that they need a caesarean. "I can see a change taking place among medical consumers and future mothers," says Chung Hee Kyung, a senior reporter of the Women's News, a weekly newspaper. Still, most believe that it could take many years before a fundamental shift in the culture is visible.
