(NYT) – South Korea, which has one of the world’s lowest fertility rates, is in the throes of a breakdown in emergency care. It is particularly acute for at-risk newborns.

Neonatal doctors say that government measures to reverse the birthrate have done little to improve their working conditions — long hours, low pay and litigious patients. These concerns echo those from the wider medical community in South Korea and contributed to an 18-month walkout by thousands of doctors that ended last September. The future of the neonatal specialty is particularly dire: The number of residents working in NICUs has decreased by 94 percent in recent years, according to government data. (Read More)