A study on Health-Social support systems in Korea : Focused on the unmarried mother and child

Abstract

The unmarried mother's problem lies in the fact that not only do unmarried mothers suffer from guilt, social stigma and severe emotional crisis, but also their illegitimate children bring about other social burden such as becoming orphans. The purpose of this study was to clarify the problem of unmarried mothers and their children, and to construct Health-Social Support Systems to promote their well-being in Korea. The subjects were 127 unmarried mothers who use social welfare facility. And this study is based out of self-questionnaire and face-to-face interviews with those unmarried mothers. The results are the unmarried mother fails to win the aid eliminating the troubles existing from pregnancy till the birth of their child. Worse still, there are very few Health- Social Support Systems to make aids possible to those unmarried mothers. In conclusion, to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and to support the maternal and child health in prenatal to the child raring environment, we found a need to construct of Health-Social Support Systems by comprehension of social welfare, health, and medicine.