Birthcare Center (2020)

A Not Too Bad Fast-Paced Drama

It was interesting to see the evolution of the characters and their relationships in a funny but also harsh way. Of course it had comedy moments, but I would say this drama could be described as more of a "documental" that exposes several mothers' difficulties and problems not always regarding their babies. One thing I liked about it was how fast-paced the drama was: no stalls or boring moments were found by me, it ended exactly where it should've. But it is obvious to me that this kind of topic may not be pleasant for some audiences, I should say. I must also highlight that the acting surprised me, from the protagonists to the supporting roles, they all kept me stuck to the episodes, especially Ms. Jang Hye Jin, who I find to be an impressive professional throughout her various roles, including Crash Landing on You and True Beauty.
Moreover, it could be recognized as a pure K-drama, cointaining all the factors to sucess. If you are extremely interested in the topic, or even not at all, watching "Birthcare Center" will surely be an entertaining journey that you will surely not have regrets of.

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Perfect simplicity

I don’t give a perfect score lightly, let’s just say that officially, that’s fifth drama that I gave 10 out of 10 and I just had to check it, because I honestly didn’t remember when was the last time I did it (for those interested, four remaining perfect dramas on my watchlist are: What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Love in the Moonlight, Kairos and Goblin). But with this I really didn’t have a choice. It took me a while to understand that this drama just deserves it, since I could’t find any weak side to it. Somehow I decided that there must be something wrong with it. I was just looking for a reason not to give it a 10, but I couldn’t. This drama is just perfect.

The story is simple. Hyun Jin is high positioned manager in a cosmetic company. She’s self assured woman of success. There’s just one thing that’s missing and it’s a child. So in a pretty advanced age of 41 she finally get’s pregnant. The thing is that work is everything for her, so she doesn’t really have time to prepare for maternity. After difficult birth Hyun Jin and her husband discover that they’re pretty clueless about what to do with an infant so they go to the titular Birthcare center, a luxurious resort, where young mothers can relax after childbirth.
Hyun Jin quickly learns that rules in Birthcare Center are totally different than in outside world. Here nobody cares what are you doing and how old are you. Your name cease to exist, since everyone will call you by your child’s name. And the most important thing is to have enough breast milk to feed the baby.

The drama doesn’t really have one main plot. There’s one motive that travel through some episodes, but the main action point is Hyun Jin stay at Birthcare Center and her path to become true mother. Instead of main plot, every episode is about one problem or subject related to motherhood. From what young mother should sacrifice for a child to naming, we get vast array of subjects that bother young mothers.

At one point I’ve noticed that I’ve just watched a whole episode about breastfeeding and it was absolutely amazing. Because this drama shows that there’s not just one way to be a good mother. I love that to this one sided environment where the amount of sacrifice shows how good of a mother you are suddenly comes a woman that openly admits that mother’s feelings are also important.

Because characters are what build this drama. From main characters to the ones that appear only for one episodes. They all bring something to the story, even if we need to wait for it for a bit. And they all have their own problems and own bigger or smaller successes. Privately I loved the most plot line of Hyun Jun’s (or “Sa Rangs mother”) that suffered from her husband indifference. For almost whole series I had my mind set to what I want this plot line to end like. And it turned out to end totally differently, and after seeing the reasoning behind it, I’ve decided that it makes a prefect sense. But throughout the whole series viewer saw this situation and it was almost clear what the outcome would be.

Playing with convention in this drama is another reason why this drama is so perfect. From “escaping zombies” from the hospital and leaving the infected behind, to introducing Birthcare center hierarchy with Snowpiercer reference. And all of it is just a background to the bittersweet story about hardships of being a new mom. And what this drama does perfectly is juggling between comedy and drama. There’s nothing in between here, honestly. It’s either visiting shaman to find out which name would guarantee that the child would become a lawyer or absolutely heartbreaking side story about loosing a child and trying to fill the void.

And this drama can keep the viewer entertained even with a smallest of story. Even side plots seem interesting enough.

And all of those things aside, what this drama hit me the most was an emotional baggage that came with it. The dilemma that was the centrer of the story about what a woman has to sacrifice to be a mom was for me truly depressing. When I saw all those young (and as it turned out later on very successful) mothers stripped from their identity by wearing those horrible, saggy dresses and being called by their child’s name. And the way Hyun Jin tries to stay relevant at her job, but is inevitably slowly replaced by someone else. This was truly terrible. Like, because she has a child, she has to resign from her life, when her husband is living pretty normally. To be honest, I’m actually trying for a baby with my husband. We had some rough moments so far, so some story here hit me personally. And when I’ve watched this drama, what I initially felt was fear. Is it the reality of motherhood? Is really sacrificing all your life the core of motherhood? Is it really the end of the life as I know so far?

This drama asks all those questions, and its characters answer them in a lot of different ways. Which is also another answer of its own. That there’s no just one way to be a good mother. That motherhood is absolutely complicated and sometimes incredibly exhausting. That it’s normal to ask yourself a question: is it worth it? And: am I doing it right? And it might be silly to read all of those things from a drama, but maybe that’s the reason it’s so great. That underneath all this silly humour and ridiculous scenes there’s something more to this rather simple story.

This review turned in a very personal and a bit off topic direction. But what I want to say here is that this drama is the best that I’ve seen in a while and will stay with me for a long time.

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Good Enough

" Birthcare Center " mixed comedy and drama masterfully.

The story touched some subjects that aren't easily presented or exposed, such as the struggles that mothers face, as well as those situations that aren't that 'glowing'.

They blended those themes with a comical-tragic character, as she advanced her journey through motherhood, finding it difficult to be happy about it, while struggling to make friends with the other mothers and defending her decision to keep her job position even after she gave birth.

Her dynamics with her main antagonist were spot on and their confrontations were entertaining. The other side characters were interesting as well, and some of them quite tragic.

As for the family drama, that too was realistic and funny at the same time.

So, overall, 8.5 out of 10.

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worth my time

a light, funny drama yet full with warmhearted scenes, love it. it was a light drama with lots of funny scenes to the point that at first I though it was a comedy drama. yet, after few episodes more and more warmhearted, touched scenes. parenthood, friendships are shown making me drawn to this drama even more. what I really like would be the amazing characters, they are all different type of mothers with different problems of their own, supportive husbands and family and great friends as well. well, some parts were excessive especially for me who's still young to know about these postpartum. but it's not a big deal since this drama centred around it.

well, watch it guys, it will worth your time :))

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As women, we're forced to make choices, sacrifices... And one of the biggest sacrifices we make is being a mother.

Birthcare Center focuses on new mothers' postpartum lives who come from different family and professional backgrounds. It caught my attention from the beginning because it's not like cliché k-dramas that make me cringe and are unbearable to watch.

In Birthcare Center, new moms can rest and recover freely and get treatment both for themselves and for their babies. It's basically like a hotel, but just for postpartum mothers. The main character of this drama is a strong senior from a skincare company. All her life, she focused on her professional life, and this was her (almost) only identity. By becoming a mom, she discovers a new identity. Like every mother, she starts being too harsh on herself: should she go back to work or should she be a full-time stay-at-home mother for a year? Even though being a mom is not in my agenda soon, I want to be a mom in the future. And I believe that many of you have thought about being a mom and the choices we have to make.
I recommend this mini-drama.

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So Unique....

I went into this thinking it was a dark drama. Was I ever wrong.....

I am glad I finally watched it after all this time. This comedic drama is really a gem to watch. Mothers would be able to relate well to this, as it chronicles the experiences from childbirth until the time they take their babies home.

The characters all have so much depth in them, and they each portrayed a different side to being a mother.

I first saw the FL in Little Women. Though I disliked her character there, I loved her here. She does comedy flawlessly. So did the ML.

If this has been on your list to watch, then do so now. You won't regret it :)

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Too underrated!

So first I want to say that I don't understand how I haven't heard anybody but one person on TikTok talk about this drama. I'm usually very informed person about K-dramas so I was very surprised and confused how I haven't heard about this one until now when it aired already 2 years ago so I think we should talk about this one way more.

I loved this drama so much! I'm a person who gets usually very bored if I watch a boring drama (of course XD), so I drop or fast forward a lot of dramas for that reason, but this was a nice surprise (and also I didn't do neither one of those with this drama).

It was heart fluttering, inspiring, funny and interesting to watch. I loved how much there were interesting and shocking information I didn't know before, and I think that was one thing what got me the most deep into this drama. Also I loved how the male lead was very (maybe a little too much because it got my expectations too high...) sweet and supportive of his wife. He never complained but tried to understand and learn about his wife's mind and her needs (even when he was also sick).

But yeah, I definitely recommend this drama to everyone (expect extreme baby haters because there's a lot of babies crying there XD)

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It's not perfect, but I'm rating it 10 to let you know that you MUST watch it too

I wasn't actually looking forward to this drama since the synopsis sounded depressing. However, nah, I had wayyy too much laughs. It's really admirable how the writer turned what's supposed to be some normal boring scenes into such comedy, that's just awesome. There were some "horror" as well and they wrapped it so nicely.

However, there were some details that held me from giving a 10/10 genuinely...

- How the cameos (or actresses who were not doing their lines) pretended to have a conversation. It seemed that the director didn't pay enough attention to this (perhaps the director trusted the actors a little bit too much), still tho, it really bothered me

- There were many awkward lines, I thing many of them existed before transitions to another scenes. I don't know how their system works, but it felt as if these lines were done by some rookie writers. Then again, I feel like it's something that can somehow be repaired by the director, maybe, not sure.

Overall, it's obvious that the production team is filled with highly experienced professionals. The casting and acting were perfect as well.

REMINDER: It's a must watch drama!!!

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Almost dropped, but definitely glad I didn't...

I almost dropped this series just because Hyun Jin and Eun Jung were so irritating!! And then Lee Roo Da comes in and seems like she is going to be a total bitch! That was supposed to be the final straw for me...but then I gave it a chance and I'm glad I did. Roo Da actually seemed rebellious, but likeable. Subsequently, I started liking the other characters too. The only character I did not like as much through the latter half of the series as I did at the beginning was Do Yoon. He seemed super cute and quirky at the beginning, but did not seem to have the same kind of sparkle towards the end, although I think there are several potential reasons for this (I won't spoil it).

The other thing is that I wished they addressed the covid situation a little bit since the series takes place in 2020. Although I don't know exactly what the situation was like in Korea...

Overall, recommend this series for new moms. Additionally, production was FANTASTIC, so anyone looking for some well-done comedic relief moments should pick this one up too!

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I feel like this drama touches on some really important topics related to motherhood and parenting. But not only that. The drama shows that pregnancy and childbirth are not always as pleasant as some people make it out to be. It also shows that there are many different ways to take care of your baby. Sometimes you have to give up something for a child despite your efforts, but you should still remember about your own happiness.

I think the actors did a really good job. The whole drama, despite touching on important topics, is a bit over-dramatic and also contains many scenes created to be funny. The combination of these things is very typical of classic Korean dramas and I liked it. Especially because the approach to the topis related to children can sometimes be a little over-dramatic from the perspective of a third person.


I agree that it's a bit of a shame there wasn't a real single parent.

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An easy binge...but..

Birthcare Center was a relatively easy watch. The comraderie among mothers, the highs and lows of motherhood, abd the harsh realities of conception and childbirth. It was all a joy to see and easy to digest.

However, I'm still uncertain if i was meant to like the protagonist? I empathised with her struggle of wanting to return to the working world and be a mother to a newborn. I imagine making that choice can't be easy. I also imagine that maternal instincts don't always kick in like magic and some people may be in a state of shock or disbelief for longer. However, the self centered nature of the protagonist, where she could not look outside of herself for more than 1 minute was overbearing. At one point I found my self rooting for Sprout's mother to take Glue Stick. I get that the narration is from her perspective but she rarely thinks of how things affect others. It was all her.

Apart from this very annoying plot point, the drama was enjoyable and i was able to watch it in an afternoon. Would i rewatch it again? No. But do I regret the hours I spent watching it? Also no. I'd recommend watching it on a free day when you're not quite sure what to watch.

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