[앵커]
Pregnant women who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or who have been classified as close contacts can give birth only in a dedicated hospital bed.
Even though there are cases of ‘ambulance delivery’ because they can’t find a dedicated hospital bed, pregnant women are terrified because the list of hospital beds is not disclosed.
Reporter Jun-yeop Lee covered why this happens.
[기자]
Park Yu-jin (pseudonym), 37 weeks pregnant.
I was scheduled to have a caesarean section this weekend, but in the meantime, if I was confirmed with COVID-19, the obstetrics and gynecology department I was attending was notified that it could not be done.
This is because a confirmed patient can give birth only in an emergency delivery bed.
[박유진 (가명) / 37주차 임신부 : 산모가 진통이 생겨 응급한 상황이 생겨야지만 119를 통해 병상을 확보해주겠단 말이 산모로서 대단히 불안했습니다.]
Embarrassed, I inquired at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention about what to do with the scheduled surgery if confirmed.
[질병 관리청 1339 상담 / 지난 16일 박유진 씨(가명) 통화 : 수술이 가능한 병원을 개별적으로 확인할 수밖에 없으세요 선생님. 감염이 안 되게끔 조심을 하시는 게… (그러니까 저는 밖에 나가지도 않아요, 심지어.)]
Due to the rapid increase in COVID-19, more and more pregnant women, like Mr. Park, are terrified of being confirmed because of an imminent childbirth.
[권영지 (가명) / 38주차 임신부 : 출근할 때는 마스크를 3개씩 끼고 나가고 있고 가족들도 필수 외출 외에는 외출도 하지 않고 있어요. 맨몸으로 지뢰밭을 걷고 있는 느낌이 많이 들어요.]
However, the dedicated hospital bed is not disclosed, so mothers who have been confirmed with Corona 19 create a group chat room and share the list they made themselves.
In the chat room, there are calls from pregnant women who urgently visit the hospital every day.
According to the health authorities, there are more than 80 hospital beds nationwide that pregnant women who have been confirmed with COVID-19 can go.
In the next two weeks, the number of beds will be more than double the current one, but the list will not be disclosed.
This is because participating hospitals requested non-disclosure, fearing that the obstetrics and gynecology department, which is a ‘hospital visited by confirmed patients’, would be stigmatized.
As the number of confirmed cases rapidly increased, some mothers gave birth in an ambulance in Gwangju Metropolitan City and in a public health center in Gumi City in North Gyeongsang Province.
In this situation, the inability to secure additional beds for confirmed mothers is simply an emergency.
[안기훈 / 고려대학교 안암병원 산부인과 교수 : 감염된 산모의 숫자도 늘 것으로 예상합니다. 이런 상태에서 시설, 공간 및 인력에 대한 확충이 무엇보다 절실합니다.]
Because of this, pregnant women are trembling with anxiety, not knowing which hospital to go to until labor begins.
This is YTN Lee Jun-yeop.
YTN Lee Jun-yeop (leejy@ytn.co.kr)
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