- Story Series: Wandering (Baehoe). Episode 133 "Labor Pains"
- Source: Kyunghyang Shinmun
- Author: Sang-Ung, Shin
- Illustration: Yu-Kyung, Lee
- Date of Publication: February 6, 1975
- Summary:
Misoon felt nothing but shame over her pregnancy. The idea of giving birth was so unbearable that she would rather die than face it. Her friends, Pilsoon and Jungja, urged her to visit an unwed mothers’ counseling center. This place is different from the ones that send mixed-race babies abroad. It was set up to find adoptive parents here in Korea for our own children. It started out by picking up abandoned babies left by garbage bins and finding them adoptive families.
"But now, they don’t wait for babies to be abandoned anymore. They find mothers before the baby is born, talk with them, take care of them, and make sure they have the baby so the organization can take the baby once it's born."
"Misoon, they call someone like you an 'unwed mother.' What do you think? A lot of women go there—why don’t you give it a try?"
Misoon couldn’t muster a response. The thought alone terrified her. How could anyone expect her to make a snap decision about going to an adoption organization, talking things out, giving birth, and then handing her baby away? It all felt too overwhelming.
"Stop overthinking it and just come with us. There’s a place called the Christian Adoption Program of Korea in Hapjeong-dong. You know, just before the Second Han River Bridge."
Pilsoon, bursting with determination, looked ready to set out at dawn. This series was featured in the Kyunghyang Shinmun from September 1, 1974, to September 30, 1975, and was later published as a book by Taeyang Munhwasa in 1977. This particular scene highlights how the concept of the "unwed mother" was relatively unfamiliar in Korean society at the time. It also offers a glimpse into the activities of the Christian Adoption Program of Korea (CAPOK), which actively promoted domestic adoption of children born to unwed mothers.
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