Books to Read Before the Great Journey of Pregnancy and Childbirth

Professor Oh Soo-young of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Samsung Seoul Hospital has a warm message for pregnant women and their families.
It vividly illustrates what actually happens in pregnancy and childbirth, and explains in detail the situations that occur or can occur at each stage from the early stages of pregnancy to childbirth.
During pregnancy and childbirth, a process filled with both wonder and fear, we answer the most frequently asked questions by expectant mothers and soothe their anxious and nervous hearts.
This book is like the ocean with a deep and wide bosom, and it offers the warm words, “It’s okay, you can do it” to those who want to become mothers.

In 2020, one in ten babies born in Korea was born through in vitro fertilization.
Meanwhile, in 2023, 2.6% of births in the United States were through in vitro fertilization.
Considering the aging of mothers, the increasing number of babies born through in vitro fertilization is understood to be a natural social phenomenon in our country.
However, there are many cases where people hastily choose to undergo in vitro fertilization instead of waiting for a natural pregnancy, and two embryos are sometimes inserted from the first procedure.
The biggest goal of couples preparing for in vitro fertilization is 'pregnancy'.
But what if we focused our goal on "healthy childbirth" rather than "pregnancy" itself? Just as the goal of a trip isn't just to board the plane, but to arrive safely at your destination and enjoy the journey.

--- p.26, from “Preparing for a Test Tube Pregnancy”

“I just need you to be okay.”
My husband spoke with love for his wife, more than his concern about the emergency surgery that had been decided on, or his worries about the three babies who would be born weighing less than 1kg, and I couldn't believe my ears, wondering if I had heard wrong.
After birth, the three babies were intubated by medical staff and transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit.
After about an hour of intense tension, the mother's voice was heard.
“Professor, I definitely want to raise one of my triplets to be an obstetrician and gynecologist.
Since I received help from the medical staff like this, I should repay them.
thank you."
I was grateful to the couple for choosing such beautiful words.
I also prayed.
Please pray that these three babies, who share the same birthday as me, will be discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit in good health.
The babies, born weighing 750gm, 800gm, and 690gm respectively, were treated in the neonatal intensive care unit for 135, 97, and 119 days and were discharged in good health.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the medical staff who treated me well so that my weight at discharge was 3.2 kg, 2.51 kg, and 2.84 kg, respectively.

--- pp.45~46, from “I’m Pregnant with Twins”

The reason I researched and developed cervical elasticity testing with several obstetrics professors was to identify those who did not necessarily need cervical suturing to prevent premature birth (since the surgery is not without risks) and to select those who did not necessarily need to endure the inconvenience of taking progesterone vaginal suppositories every day for several months.
I wanted to reduce unnecessary surgeries and medications.
How much time and effort have you devoted to research and development of cervical elasticity? This research began in 2013, when I served as chair of the Ultrasound Research Committee of the Korean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
For the first three years or so, I worked with an ultrasound company on developing an elasticity program and conducting early-stage research.
Afterwards, I was awarded a difficult national project and served as the head of a multi-institutional research project with a total research budget of 750 million won over two and a half years.
The numerous PowerPoint files, Word files, and Hangul files that I presented in the process are taking up a considerable amount of space on my computer.
The days I worked late into the night to conduct research and submit reports on time, the tired steps I took after work as I trudged through the quiet hospital hallways to the parking lot.
It's a frustrating Friday evening, and the words from the Hippocratic Oath, "Do no harm," come to mind.

--- p.113, from “The neck is short”

You can only know if you will be able to give birth to a baby after going into labor.
This is because there are cases where the examination findings before labor started showed a narrow pelvis, but once labor started, the baby adapted well to the pelvis, that is, the birth canal, and came down, resulting in a natural birth.
On the other hand, it is not uncommon for pre-labor examination findings to show good pelvic size and a small baby, but for labor to fail or for an emergency cesarean section to be performed due to abnormal fetal heart rate.
The process of childbirth is as varied as the human body.
Labor, childbirth, and the process of creating a new life never follow a set formula.
A successful vaginal birth is a complex mix of factors, including the mother's age, height, obesity, previous childbirth history, pelvic size, cervical condition, fetal size, uterine contractions, and how well the mother pushes after the cervix is ​​fully dilated.

--- pp.215~216, from “Natural childbirth and cesarean section, it’s difficult to choose”