Word: asia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Five hundred years later, surgical delivery seems as trifling as tooth extraction. In Chile, which is currently believed to have the world's highest cesarean rate, 40% of all births are in the operating theater. But larger populations in Asia mean that greater numbers of C-sections are performed in this region, particularly in South Korea (36.4% of all births in the first half of 2006), Taiwan (with a rate of roughly 33%), Singapore (about 30%) and China (approximately 26%). In Thailand, Dr. Stephen Atwood of the maternal and child-health section of UNICEF's regional office, says...
...Despite the procedure's pitfalls, there have been few official attempts to reduce Asia's high cesarean rates. One of the more notable instances was in South Korea in 2004 - three years after the country's rate hit an OECD high of 40.5%. A chastened government launched a campaign to encourage natural childbirth, and the number of prenatal classes was also increased, allowing more women to learn about the pain-management techniques essential in vaginal delivery. "Overall, Korean women are much more educated about the issue," says Kim Jae Sun, an official at the government's Health Insurance Review...
...forces driving up Asia's cesarean rates are irresistible, from both the demand and the supply sides of the equation - and though the medical drawbacks are significant, they are not serious enough to become a real deterrent to expectant mothers. As surgical techniques improve and costs decrease, perhaps the reasons for preferring natural delivery will one day be intangible. It may become something akin to a rite of passage - the choice of a romantic, affluent minority. In fact, some already see it that way. When his patients choose to give birth naturally, even to the extent of refusing painkillers...
...workers their jobs. Makers of low-end goods are already suffering. The Guangdong city of Huidong was home to 3,000 shoe factories at the beginning of 2007, but as many as 500 of them have closed over the past 15 months, says Li Peng, secretary of the Asia Footwear Association in Hong Kong. One-sixth of 44,200 textile firms tracked by the China National Textile and Apparel Council lost money last year and two-thirds are just breaking even. "Manufacturers' profits are so low that when they hit the slightest snag, they have to close," says...
...like business and finance but still end up on Wall Street, Pencz sees his liberal arts education as a way to supplement his résumé. Extracurricular activities play a key role in preparing Pencz for his desired future: he is the business manager of Harvard Model Congress Asia, he has a research job at Harvard Business School, and a Goldman Sachs internship lined up for the summer. Pencz is also among the troop of undergraduates who heads down Mass Ave a few days a week for accounting courses at MIT. It’s this idea of using...