Abstract
The Korean healthcare system is divided into two, Western Medicine and Korean Medicine. Postpartum illness, called as Sanhupung in Korean, has officially been recognized as a serious disease in Korean Medicine, while it has not been acknowledged as a disease in Western Medicine. This paper attempts to investigate how Korean Medicine has changed in relation to Western Medicine using Sanhupung as an example, and to analyze the discourse in the literature of Korean Medicine (KM) by examining recent government policies toward childbirth and KM, as well as academic articles on Korean medical practices. The method of analysis is the review of 47 papers about Sanhupung which have been published since 1985 in Korean traditional medical journals. As a result, Sanhupung, supported by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and its historical and theoretical background, has gained more importance with the various case reports and the studies carried out on actual patients in Korean Medicine. Korean Medicine has played a significant role in the health care of postpartum women and at the same time, brought an increased social awareness to concerns related childbirth. Subsequently, health care for women during the postpartum period (Sanhujori) has grown in importance. This development is not only relevant to medical disorder found in TCM, but to all illnesses. It shows that illness is an intimate conjunct part of a social system, and is strongly influenced by culture and socially constructed.
