No hospital, no hope: the death of the mothers highlights the rural health gap in N. Korea

A woman in the province of Ryanggang died of blood loss when he was born at home after eight months of pregnancy. The tragedy occurred because, as the resident of a rural agricultural community, it had no easy access to a hospital.

According to a daily NK source in the province, the woman recently experienced contractions in her house on the evening of March 25.

However, during the birth she lost an unexpectedly large amount of blood. The midwife was unable to cope with the emergency and the woman died.

“Hospitals are not easily accessible in agricultural communities,” said the source. “In the capitals of the province or in the city center of cities and counties, people often go to hospitals to give birth, but hospitals are far away in rural regions, and village clinics generally have no departments for obstetrics and gynecology.”

For this reason, pregnant women in rural areas sometimes move to the house of a relative in the city before their due date, but most of them bring the world at home with the help of a midwife.

“Transport is scarce in these agricultural communities. If a woman wants to deliver in a hospital, she has to travel with ox car,” said the source. “Tractors do not run because there is no fuel, and even the use of a car requires permission of the person responsible.”

“There are taxis, but they rarely venture into rural areas, and they are far too expensive for rural residents to consider it at all.”

The woman who died went to work prematurely and issued her a higher risk.

In the agricultural communities of North Korea, women normally gave birth to at home rather than in medical institutions. Hospitals are inaccessible and even available clinics rarely have birth departments. Those who often lack special devices and medical care and make proper treatment or operations difficult.

Land residents with little income also find the costs for hospital births unaffordally expensive. For North Korean women in farmers who have to pay for assets for obstetrical care, it is often their only realistic option to call a midwife and give birth at home.

The source added that another factor that increases complications at birth of births is the lack of basic knowledge of pregnancy and birth among rural residents. Since most of them rely on questionable information from neighbors or relatives and not for formal education, they are often not prepared for the realities of pregnancy and childbirth.

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