3.4 The maternal and child health programme

From February 1968 to 1973, WHO provided consultation aimed at enhancing the MCH programme across the country and developing local health projects that integrated family planning into the general health programme. Moreover, from 1971 to 1974, the Organization supported the training of professors and administrators responsible for teaching nurses and midwives, as well as the training of personnel needed to integrate family planning into the general training course (see Box 3). With help from UNICEF, WHO distributed home delivery kits to nurse-midwives at the public health sub-centres. The kit was an essential tool for safe homebirths, which accounted for around 80% of all deliveries since the 1970s. In an effort to comprehensively implement both the MCH and family planning programmes, from 1972 WHO supported a variety of research projects related to the effectiveness of intrauterine devices led by Seoul National University, Youngnam University, Yonsei University and the Planned Parenthood Federation of Korea (57).

From March 1973 to December 1974, WHO and the Government of the Republic of Korea supported a family planning project that was centred on MCH.

box 3. reflections of Hong Jae-woong

The first MCH project in which I was involved was the one implemented by the Urban Population Research Society at Seoul National University College of Medicine. With research funding from USAID, the society planned a pilot project on family planning in urban areas. The project for rural areas was led by the preventive medicine class (Yang Jae-mo and Bang Sook) at Yonsei University College of Medicine and implemented in Goyang-gun. The Urban Population Research Society at Seoul National University College of Medicine carried out the project in Geumho-dong, Seongdong-gu (also called the Seongdong Project).

The project was later extended to other areas, including Wangsimni and Miari. The project conducted research on new contraceptive methods to be introduced to the national family planning project, such as intrauterine devices and oral contraceptives, to verify the receptivity of residents and determine the side effects of contraceptives in advance. Moreover, the project carried out research on the effects of the Special Incentive Programme, which can increase the receptivity of contraceptive methods, and also on the physical and psychological changes in those who underwent deferentectomy.

With financial support from WHO, for one year in 1984, I studied under the guidance of Helen M. Wallace of the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University in California. At the graduate school, I could audit the Master of Public Health course on maternal and child health and freely attend the lectures of other majors. Furthermore, I could engage in the research carried out by Dr Wallace and also in setting up the plans of the department. All of these were of great help to me when I began designing the MCH curriculum for the Graduate School of Public Health at Seoul National University. The majority of the students in the MCH department at this newly established graduate school in San Diego came from South-East Asia and Africa, which provided a good opportunity for me to learn about the status of MCH of many countries.

Likewise, thanks to the support from WHO, in July 1989, I had the opportunity to observe the primary health-care services of four countries, namely, Malaysia: the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, spending a week in each country (47).