Last year, two out of three women gave birth by Caesarean section in South Korea

In Korea, the number of "Cesarean sections" at medical institutions has increased sharply in the past five years. However, "this is not a medical decision, but a measure to avoid medical accidents, etc.
It has been pointed out that this is not unrelated to the growing trend towards 'defensive medical treatment.'
According to documents obtained from the National Health Insurance Service by ruling party People Power Party lawmaker Seo Myung-ok, who is a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee,
The total number of births in 2012 was 235,234, of which only 76,588 were natural births, while cesarean sections accounted for 67.4%.
This is a 16.3 percentage point increase from 2019 (51.1%). Shin Bon-sik, president of the Korea Association of Childbirth Hospitals, said, "The number of deliveries by Caesarean section has increased.
"The fact that the number of women in the hospital is increasing indicates a tendency towards defensive medical treatment," he said. "When deciding whether to have a natural birth or a Caesarean section, the basis for the decision is not medical judgment, but medical accidents and hospital transfer issues.
However, indiscreet Caesarean sections can have a negative impact on the health of mothers and fetuses. The issue is how to eliminate the legal risks associated with "unavoidable birth accidents."
The current legal mechanisms for this have become meaningless. Since 2013, the Korean government has implemented the Medical Dispute Settlement Act, which provides for the settlement of cases where a doctor has exercised due care but the case arises out of unavoidable circumstances.
However, according to documents obtained by Rep. Seo, there have been a total of 101 cases of unavoidable medical accidents between 2021 and March 2025.
The government began making adjustments to the compensation, but the actual compensation was only half of that. Rep. Seo said, "The reality is that the more defensive medical treatments become, such as the increase in Caesarean sections, the more difficult it becomes to make medical decisions."
He also emphasized that "if a doctor's medical judgment is legitimate, there is an urgent need to improve the system to reduce judicial risks such as lawsuits or to exempt them from liability."