It is said that Korea is weakening! What's the evidence?

Do you know that Korea's low birthrates are serious? By the way!

As I wander around my house, I realize that haha-hoho smiling children have decreased a lot compared to before.

pic = squid game @netflix

I'm still young, but I remember my childhood, 20 years ago, when I was running around the neighborhood. At that time, as my grandfather, Oh Il-nam of Squid Game, said, "When we were young, we played a lot of these games."

pic = squid game @netflix

But these days, the number of newborns in Korea is decreasing very much! Of course, it's not yesterday or today. By the way! I heard that Korean newborns are becoming very weak these days. What's going on here?

There are few and light babies... It's very...

This serious phenomenon is taking place in Korea in a world where global infinite competition is taking place. In the midst of low birth rates, the number of underweight children with low weight at birth continues to increase. With the number of births rapidly decreasing, if the quality of health of babies born deteriorates, it is a really serious phenomenon for the future of Korea.

First, let's look at the phenomenon of low birth rate. Korea has fallen to the world's smallest number of babies per population, as the Oxford Institute of Population Research cited Korea as the first country to disappear from the earth in the future. A decrease in population in a country is an inevitable result of a decrease in the labor force by reducing the working-age. In the end, the nation's future growth engines are falling and economic vitality is deteriorating by reducing consumption, but Korea's population problem is now on the decline.

The total fertility rate (average number of babies born by one childbearing woman aged 15 to 49) must be at least 2.1, so that the number of people will remain similar. There are many people who ask why 2.1 people, not 2.0 people. The reason is that the child dies as he grows up and even reflects the early mortality rate of some women. In any case, the population is maintained only when two couples meet and have at least two children. However, Korea has already fallen below one to 0.98 in 2018, but has fallen to 0.92 in 2019 and 0.84 last year, continuing to break the world's lowest fertility rate.

pic = UN population division 2019

The problem with the low fertility rate is that it further reduces the population size of young people, not all age groups. In the future, the number of young people entering the production age decreases, but as the age of aging increases, the number of elderly people they have to support is relatively increasing. There is an aging index, which is the ratio of the elderly (65 years old or older) to the population of 100 youth (under 14 years old). The figure reached 152 this year. In other words, the elderly population is 1.5 times higher than that of youth. The longer the low birth rate is maintained, the more difficult it becomes to reverse the population decline. However, since Korea has repeatedly declined for the past 20 years, the aging index is expected to continue to increase, which is a really serious phenomenon.

People overlook the problem of underweight children as serious as this. Underweight babies are babies weighing less than 2.5kg at birth, and premature birth, which accounts for 10% of all pregnancies, is the main cause. In 2000, the phenomenon of low birth rates began in earnest in Korea, and the proportion of underweight children among those born at that time was 4%. However, 20 years later, in 2020, it increased to 7%. In other words, the rate of underweight babies born with low birth rates has rather nearly doubled over the past 20 years. The problem is expected to increase further in the future.

What's the problem with being underweight?

What is the problem with underweight children? First of all, it accounts for 65-80% of the causes of newborn deaths. In particular, underweight children born prematurely are the main cause of death for children under the age of five. People have difficulty breathing from birth, and develop slowly after birth. The incidence of various diseases is inevitably high during the newborn period. They can suffer from disabilities such as learning problems, hearing problems, and vision problems. In particular, the prevalence of cerebral palsy increases significantly in underweight children under 1600g. Cerebral palsy is a disease that causes "non-progressive" damage to the brain of a young child (fetal to 4~5 years old) whose development has not yet been completed, causing disabilities in motor function. In some cases, this disease may require physical therapy and health care throughout life. In other words, there is a risk that the quality of life will deteriorate just by the fact that they were born as underweight children. Underweight children are also more than twice to six times more likely to lead to cardiovascular diseases such as hyperlipidemia and high blood pressure in adults, and their relationship with metabolic syndrome such as diabetes has been steadily reported.

Therefore, efforts should be made to reduce premature birth, the main cause of underweight children nationwide. The growing number of elderly pregnancies is also a problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) medically classifies pregnant women aged 35 or older as elderly pregnant women, and in Korea, it was 15% in 2009 and 33% in 2019, more than doubling in 10 years. Since the elderly pregnancy itself is twice as high as the premature birth rate, which causes underweight babies, the test tube pregnancy rate increases, resulting in an increase in twin pregnancy, about 54% of twins are premature, so prospective measures are needed. In fact, more than 50% of twins are born underweight, compared to only 6% when pregnant with one baby. Of course, active treatment for early amniotic rupture and cervical incompetence, which are the main causes of premature birth, is also important.

Even in late pregnancy, there are cases of becoming underweight. In addition to lack of prenatal nutrition, various complications during pregnancy, such as high blood pressure during pregnancy and gestational diabetes, affect this. If you are too young to get pregnant (under 17 years old) or if you are pregnant over the age of 35, your underweight baby will increase even if you give birth late. You should also pay attention to proper weight gain during pregnancy. Of course, harmful food and drug use should be avoided.

This is a community problem

Korea's low birth rate should no longer be recognized as an individual problem, but a task that society as a whole must solve jointly. Various and complex social and economic causes that individuals and families cannot solve are combined. Among them, childcare and education costs are actually inevitable factors within a short period of time. However, this should not neglect the increase in underweight children.

There will be many other important things in national health care, but active interest and support for pregnant women that increase one healthy citizen is paramount. It cannot be overemphasized that maternal and child health measures are serious matters that take care of both pregnant women and fetuses. I hope the new government will take care of it as a national priority policy.