Asan Medical Center said on the 19th that it achieved 329 deliveries in January. Among all delivery patients at the hospital, high-risk pregnancies such as severe preeclampsia, placental abruption, and intrauterine growth restriction, as well as fetal anomalies, account for 60%.
Average monthly deliveries stand at 200, the highest among Korea's "big five hospitals." In the United States, Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins Hospital, which handle complex deliveries, each perform 200 deliveries a month, while Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital is known to perform around 300 a month.
Over the past three years, of the 6,999 deliveries performed at the hospital, 4,163 involved high-risk pregnancies and fetal anomalies. Preterm premature rupture of membranes, in which the amniotic sac breaks early, was the most frequent at 723 cases. Placenta previa, where the placenta falls over the birth canal, followed with 468 cases, and preterm labor with 461.
Although the hospital mainly performed high-risk deliveries, there were no safety incidents at the hospital over the past year. The outcome stems from the efforts of medical staff who safeguarded patient safety 24 hours a day in delivery rooms, obstetrics wards, and neonatal intensive care units, and from accumulated clinical experience. The hospital quietly shouldered complex delivery care amid the COVID-19 pandemic and medical-government conflict.
Won Hye-sung, head of obstetrics and gynecology at Asan Medical Center, said, "All medical staff who devoted themselves day and night without giving up on precious lives achieved meaningful results together," adding, "We will continue to enhance our expertise in complex deliveries so that high-risk mothers and fetuses can receive safe treatment and return home healthy."