I can't understand how one can say you do not have many options in Korea?
I'll venture to say you have at least one hospital in every city of any size in Korea. Probably 6 or more within 30 minutes of Osan. Unless for some reason you don't have Champus, there should be no problem. As far as I know, Korean hospitals have much more experience in the OB room than the 121! I have visited a few in my time, and never have I seen a hospital who didn't have some English speaking staff, usually the doctors and nurses.

Just today I saw the story of an American who had a problem pregnancy at Misawa AB, Japan. Misawa sent her downtown to Amori Hospital and the baby was delivered at 25 weeks. The size of a bag of Hershey's kisses, they said! The baby stayed 4 months, I think, and then was flown with the mother to the US.

Oh, I know you might be more comfortable in a Military Hospital, but check out which has the most experienced personnel?

First you have to get Tricare to get you a referal to a Korean hospital, and not all of them around here take Tricare. Then you have to deal with paying for it all up front and being reimbursed. This isn't usually that much, but not everyone has that kind of cash on hand. And if you end up having a problem pregnancy, that can end up costing quite a bit. Even if they "speak English" they don't always speak it well enough for all of us, especially those of us with little experience talking with koreans, to understand. Dr. Kim is a korean at 121 and he speaks pretty good English from what people have said, but I had a TERRIBLE time trying to understand him.

Also, some of us came here late into our pregnancies, which makes it hard to transfer to a Korean hospital. Once I got here I was in need of a doctor since it had been so long since my last appointment. So, I ended up being seen on base here at Osan AFB, only to be told they couldn't do anything with my pregnancy, I had to go to yongsan *just because I was on any sort of medication* So, I got an appointment up there. I was so far along in my pregnancy by then I just didn't feel comfortable trying to find a new doctor at a new hospital. So, it just worked out best that I go to Yongsan. Its free, which is always a nice thing.

I really am not comfortable in military hospitals. I'd much rather see a civilian doctor, but that isn't always the best solution. I know a girl who delivered at a Korean hospital and said it was fine, but she didn't love it. She didn't love having to go buy herself a bottle of water when she was thirsty. She felt like she was taking care of herself at the hospital.

Sorry, let me reword it. In my experience, enlisted soldiers & mid-grade NCOs aren't usually told, "If you don't like the care you're receiving, then you may seek care somewhere else, with our blessing." It also usually goes by rank. Many times, in the Army at least, the lower ranking you are, the less someone will pay attention to what you're saying.

Also, in the States, I can pick up a phone book and call a midwife and ask her, "Do you take Tricare?" That's a little more difficult here, with the language barrier. I have yet to find a midwife here in Korea who will return my emails (of the two I've found).

Now let me talk out of the other side of my mouth. I've noticed at 121 that soldiers are more likely to be referred to specialists off post when the hospital can't provide the services they need. I've only been here a month, so I'm used to the way my last few assignments handled it, which was, "We're booked - call back in a month." From what I've seen, 121 doesn't always follow that line of thought, so that's encouraging.

:)

Me and the wife had a great experience at 121. We were there just this last week and came home with a beatiful baby girl named Grace Yuri Pak. If you end up going to 121 don't expect to get admitted before your 4cm dialated unless your water breaks. We went when my wife was 2cm but since her water didn't break we had to keep coming back to check. Finally after about 12 hours she hit 4cm.

We were supposed to have Dr. Kim who is by the way Korean and in the US military as a Lt Col. Thats what one of the nurses told us by the way so I'm guessing it's true but then again I never saw his name tag. He was going to be our Dr for the delivery but he was having a migrane from working on call through the night and so he wasn't able to be our Dr. We ended having Dr. Elliot who was pretty awesome.

All the nurses except for one were really great. Me and the wife are Korean so we had it pretty good since we could understand the Korean nurses there and they could speak to us in Korean. We did have a problem with one of the Korean nurses, she just seemed really snauty and like she didn't want to be there. I got in an argument with her the first 2 minutes when we first arrived. I told her that the number that they gave me to call which should be manned 24/7 wasn't working or someone wasn't manning the desk like they were supposed to and she told me that I was dialing the wrong number. I told her to look at the number on my phone and tell me if it was right and when she finally did she pretty much just shut up. But then she had to check and see how much my wife was dialated and I think took her anger out on her. Or maybe getting that checked is always painful.

All in all our experience was great, we ended up having to go to a Korean hospital called Samsung about 20 mins from 121. Our baby had jaundice and there was 2 other babies at 121 at the time, since we spoke korean the Dr. picked us to go off base to get treated. It wasn't bad, the hospital according to the mil Dr is more capable then 121. Bad part about this was that we didn't get an interpreter and so I had to ask my wife what the Dr was saying like every min. And visiting hours to see your kid suck, it's between 1300-1400 and 1900-2000. You also have to provide baby wipes. It was a hassle, I kind of wish we didn't speak american so we could of stayed at 121. But our baby is good now so I'm happy.

SORRY FOR THE SUPER LONG POST. Oh and stork nest called us when we got back home from the hospital to let us know they had a room. The turumi cost us about $80 a night at an E5 rate.

Congrats on the baby girl! :)

I'm a couple days from 40 weeks now and no sign of going into labor any time soon. Dr. Thompson said they'd induce at 41 weeks, but we'll see what REALLY happens.

I'm curious about their policy - do they induce everyone at 41 or did they discuss it with you & that's what you decided? Just gathering information so I can be better prepared. :)

Yay! Congratulations!

Thanks

Another reason why they probably didn't let her stay at the hospital when she was 1.5 or 2 and without her water being broke was because both the delivery rooms were being used at the time. They said that if she did have to get admitted then she would have to go to a Korean Hospital. I'm so glad that didn't happen especially since she's TRICARE Standard.

Since she gave birth at 121 it was free and our baby had to get treated for Jaundice at Samsung hospital and since she's a new born and I'm under TRICARE Prime the baby is covered for 60 days. I'm submitting the claims tomorrow, I better get all my money back.

Oh and two days in the hospital to get treated for Jaundice was a tiny bit of $2,000. Pretty expensive if you ask me.

Hi! I too live at Osan. My son was born at 121 in January. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Heck, my entire prenatal experience in Korea was interesting and not the greatest to say the least. I saw Maj Thorpe once. She seemed nice, but didn't really seem all together with things. Then again, very few in the OB office seemed to have things together. Dr. Kim was nice but as you said, hard to understand. I saw Dr. Elliot for my 39 week appointment, She stripped my membranes then and ended up delivering my son 3 hours later.

As far as Korean hospitals go, I think Samsung is great. My son was born with a medical condition that 121 could not handle and was transferred to Samsung within hours of his birth. He had emergency surgery and spent 10 days in their NICU. The international clinic at Samsung is awesome. The staff is really nice, speak excellent english, and help you schedule all of your appointments, handle any questions, and take you where ever you need to go in the hospital. We've been to Samsung several times a month meeting with all kinds of doctors. Every doctor we've talked to speaks perfect english and many of them have worked in the states at one point or another. My son underwent major surgery last month and spent another 10 days in the hospital. We had complete and total confidence in his surgeon and the care he received.

Wow I got the impression that none of the people in the NICU spoke any english. When we took my daughter there for her Jaundice I don't think they spoke one bit of english to us, they just talked to my wife in Korean. I had to ask my wife what they were saying every min. But yeah even the doc at 121 said that Samsung was way better then 121.