An Ethnographic Study about Taegyo Practice in Korea

Kim, Hyeon Ok

Abstract

The purpose of this study is twofold :(i) to investigate how much effort the married couples are making for the good health of both the pregnant woman and her unborn child from the time of their marriage to and during the period of conception ; and(ii) to comprehensive investigate socio-cultural backgrounds which affect prenatal effort. Result of this study provide a basis for the prenatal care program which will be appropriate to our culture. This study has been done by the ethnographic research method. The subjects of this study are 53 people in all consisting of 33 pregnant women and 20 husbands. In order to investigate socio-cultural factors which influence Taegyo, producers of Taegyo music were interviewed. In addition, the researcher surveyed the markets of Taegyo music, participated in special courses of prenatal education, analyzed the content of the books and periodicals dealing and collected the concept of Taegyo distributed by the mass media. The full-fledged study continued for eight months from February to August, 1996. The data were analyzed as soon as they were collected. Spradly's(1979, 1980) developmental, sequential method of domain analysis, taxonomic analysis, componential analysis, and theme analysis in this order was adopted as the procedure of analyzing the data. To obtain the exactness of study, Sandelowski's(1986) four criteria, that is, Credibility, Fittingness, Auditability, and Confirmability were applied to all stages of data collection, data analysis, the interpretation of the result, and the description of the result. The following are the result : 1. The couples' Taegyo at the stage of preconception was related to their physical, psychological, spiritual conditions under which a healthy baby will be born. Specific methods they prefer are : "the choice of one's spouse," "physical check-up," "physical good health," "praying," and so on. 2. When the married couple have sex in order to conceive, their Taegyo was related to the imposition of their physical, psychological, and environmental conditions. Specific methods they prefer are: "having sex at specific time," "having sex in nice place," "to purify their minds while having sex," and so on. 3. The married couples' Taegyo while they are in pregnancy was related to the imposition of their physical, psychological, emotionmental, environmental, social and spiritual conditions. Specific methods they prefer are : "listening to music," "reading," "looking at beautiful things only," "to avoid looking at or listening to bad things," "to eat food in good shape," "to avoid drugs," "eating Korean herbal medicine," "sexual abstinence," "to avoid dangerous places," " to keep emotional tranquility," "moderate exercises and rest," "leading a pure life," "praying," "being aware of their words and behavior," "for the couple to keep a good relationship," "interaction with their unborn child," "to support Taegyo for pregnant women," and so on. 4. The married couple put Taegyo into practice on the basis of the following principles : the principle of respecting an unborn child, the principle of forming a good disposition, the principle of top-down parental love, the principle of synergy between a pregnant woman and her unborn child, the principle of expecting a good child, the principle of forming a good habit, and the principle of acquiring a parental role. 5. The practice of Taegyo is influenced by such factors as the married couple, the supporting system, and the married couple, the supporting system, and the mass media. As the husband-and-wife factor, their information of Taegyo, the degree of importance is assigned to their characters, their time to spare, their healthiness, the age of pregnant woman, their conception plan, their religion, their belief of the Taegyo effects, and the birth of a baby in this order. The factor of the supporting system consists of her husband's support, he family support, and her neighbor's support. The mass media specialized in Taegyo, periodicals for pregnant women, booklets for advertizing powdered milk, Taegyo music of record manufacturing companies, and the teaching materials for gifted children. Among these the mass media is especially taking advantage of Taegyo as its main source of economic profits and leading the public behavior pattern to a prodigal one. Taegyo is a self-control behavior which requires practice for the following : the physical and psychological good health of the pregnant woman and her unborn child, the development of the unborn child's good character, the envelopment of the unborn child's intelligence and talents, the expectation of the unborn child's good features, shape a good habit, the expectation of the unborn child's bright future, and the learning of a parental role, the expectation of male birth. Above all it is a type of our good cultural tradition which pursues a value higher than the one that the prenatal care does. The principles of pregnancy care inherent in the habit of Taegyo will provide us a guideline for the development of the prenatal care.