Giving Birth In Germany

I posted some questions on the other board last week: I am due to give birth at the beginning of april here in Germany and I wanted to know if anyone could remember a list of useful phrases that had been posted there last year and where it was from. I also was wondering about what nationality my son would be as I am still French and my Husband is English. I got a lot of useful replies and would really like to thank Rebecca who gave me a brilliant list of vocabulary for my husband to use.
Are there any other mums or/and dads who have a few words to say about how giving birth here compares to back in the UK?

Hi Mireille!

I'm also expecting here in Germany.. though I still have 6 months to go. I can understand your concerns about the differences between giving birth here and at home (I'm Canadian though, not British). I just wanted to let you know that I found this web page that I thought was quite helpful:

http://www.howtogermany.com/baby.html

It also has a list of terms at the bottom. I'm lucky enough that my husband speaks German alright.. but mine is really not so good and I think it will be frustrating not to know exactly what's going on.

I have a question for you - everyone mentions having a midwife here. Do I need to get one? I have an OB.. should I get a midwife as well? Will your midwife be there for the birth?

Anyway, hope you're feeling alright!
Kristy

Hi Kristy!

I am also very confused on the midwife subject. The one I see at my surgery is not going to be at the birth because she does not "do" hospitals any more. My neighbours have given the name of a midwife but as I am not sure about what the procedures are, I'll ask when I go to my next ante-natal appointment on friday and I'll let you know.
Thanks a lot for the link.
Take care.

Hi it has been a few years since I went through the birthing procedure but regarding the Hebamme, I believe you are entitled to have a Hebamme visit you (daily?) after you get out of hospital. I think the best bet would be to call your Krankenkasse and see what you are entitled to. Alternatively you could employ one privately to come and visit you. The other thing I was thinking of mentioning might be a Still gruppe (breast feeding group). I have often seen these groups available through the Evangalische Bildungstatte or similar.

Hi all,
Just wanted to pass on my and my wife's experience of having a baby here in Germany.
We moved to Koeln May last year with my wife 7 months pregnant. She registered with a Gyno straight away (Private) and had what I can only describe as first class care from her. I lost count of the number of scans she had (difference with Private Healthcare, I guess). The Gyno recommened one of the local hospitals to us for the birth and she even arranged for an appointment with the head doctor for a tour of the department/facilities. Our German level at the time was zero (not much better now actually!) but we needn't have worried as all the doctors spoke perfect English. I think this is pretty normal for higher educated people in Germany so I don't think anyone should be too concerned about any language barrier. My wife was even given a scan as part of the tour, just so the doctor could satisfy himself everything was OK, even before we'd finally decided that we would use that hospital!
It was the hospital who gave us a list of midwives and their telephone numbers for us to choose from, but this was only for care after the birth. We asked which of these spoke English and the list was shortened from about eight to four, I think. We just picked one that had a nice name and were lucky to find she was really friendly and helpful.
The actual birth went incredibly well, even if not to plan. From my wife saying 'this is it' at about midnight to the delivery was about 50 minutes! On arrival at the hospital's maternity dept (approx 15 mins from home at that time of night) we were taken to a little side room with a bed where the heartbeat monitor is put on. At this point the contractions were getting very strong and my wife asked for some pain relief. 'We don't do pain relief', she was told. No gas & air, no pethidine? 'I can't do this' she cried! My son wasn't waiting any longer though and he was delivered right there and then. My wife is quite proud of the fact now that she didn't have any pain relief. Not sure if this is a hospital-specific policy or normal German way, but maybe worth checking beforehand!
Regarding nationality: we called the British Consulate in Duesseldorf and were sent the relevant forms for a British Passport. 57 Euros (!) and approx 3 weeks later he was offically a British citizen. I understand that he must be resident min 5 years here before he could claim dual nationality.
Just a word of warning if you have Private Health Insurance: the bills add up very quickly with everything involved in a birth - the Gyno, the hospital, the midwife etc.. The bill from the hospital was amazing - we were charged for absolutely everthing - even for the Doctor being on call and we didn't even see him! Of course you get it all back, but for some months we had something of a cash-flow problem and needed a significant overdraft!

If anyone has further questions I'd be happy to try and answer from our experience.

You get scanned a lot however you are insured. I think it is a case of the machine is there so it gets used.
The policy on pain relief is widespread. They prefer to use epidurals as these do not harm the baby, don't wait for it to be offerred if you think you need one ask .They think gas and air is old fashioned and women shouldn't be high as a kite while trying to have a baby.
If you are insured on the Krankenkasse you are entitled to a midwife for antenatal classes and aftercare. Its worth it for the after care as there is no one else who will visit you. In England you get a health visitor.
Our midwife was very helpful answering questions about breastfeeding, caring for a bleeding navel (babys not mine) and she even gave our first child a bath because we were clueless how to do it. She also brought a set of scales round for us to weigh the baby on.

Thanks everyone! I feel a bit more empowered now and you've helped me compile a list of questions for my doctor and the AOK. That makes me feel very organised as I normally leave everything to the last minute and keep thinking it will be all right on the day; something my husband really disapproves of.
I have another question for later: did you have to start weaning your children with carrots? That's what my neighbours told me you HAVE to do here but I would have thought baby rice was a bit more gentle for the baby.

It depends a bit on your paediatrician how much interest is taken in feeding at the check ups.
It is also considered perfectly acceptable here to offer unrequsted advice about how you should be looking after your child, don't be intimidated.

The usual first food here is carrots and its usually introduced btween 4 and 6 months. You can buy baby rice suitable for this age group too. Read the packets, some are hypo allergenic, some are sweeetened. I started my children on apple followed by carrots and rice. Carrots have the advantage of making the poo more solid.

There is a greater awareness of allergy prevention here and many products are available which contain no milk or hypoallergenic milk. You can also buy hypoallergenic formula. There is one opinion frequently expreesed that milk should be kept out of the diet (except breastmilk and hypoallergenic formula) for the first 12 months if there is anyone in the family with asthma, excema or milk allergy.
I tried to do this and managed up to 10 months by which time my children were sticking spoons in my yogurt and it seemed unfair to stop them any longer.

I'm a Scottish midwife and am surprised to hear about the frequency of ultrasound scans women get here without any real reason for doing it. The Scottish consultant I saw when I had my kids said they keep scans to a minimum now as recent research thinks over scanning can be harmful.
I've read this in the midwifery journals I get too. Obviously if there is a worry about fetal growth or abnormality they scan more but for normal healthy pregnancies you should only get 1 or 2, 3 at most.
In Germany I guess it is just the case of well the machine is there lets use it!!

Anyway, good luck with the baby Mirielle!

Sandra
It what way can they be harmful? What have the affects been on the baby? Is there any hard evidence?
Luke

Sandra,

I have read with much interest that you are a scottish midwife iand that you live in Celle. I live just outside Celle. Are you working as a midwife here then? Do you do births in the AKH? If so, could I contact you? I am going for a last week of peaceful holiday tomorrow so i wont be on the board for a while but I'll check it as soon as I come back.

Hi Mirielle,
No I don't work here. I gave up when my 1st came along 6 years ago so I am a bit rusty! However I try to read to keep in touch a bit. I'll find you some info Luke if I can but I'll be offline now for a while as we move house tomorrow!! so as you can imagine I'll be a bit busy!! Good luck with the baby, everything will be fine I'm sure Sandra

My daughter was born in the UK 17 years ago. The care both my wife and daughter received was excellent.

My son was born here nearly 3 years ago. Excellent care from the midwives but had a few problems with one or 2 doctors who carried on inducing when my wife was nearly 10 days overdue. I was not happy with this situation and moved her to another hospital that didn't want to maintain their record for having the lowest cesarean rate in Europe.

My son has both German and British Nationality. I believe that when he is 18, he must decide which one he wants.

When I was pregnant I read somewhere that nobody really knows if early scans damage a babys hearing or cause them discomfort or pain. When I asked my doctor about this she said that the scans are kept as short as possible for this reason. The first scan is done between 7 and 11 weeks to check normal growth, confirm due date and check the pregnancy is in the uterus not the fallopian tube.
If everything is OK the next scan is between 20 and 24 weeeks.This is a longer scan as the babys development and growth is checked in detail. At the end of the pregnancy they get very enthusiastic about scans but I don't think the risk of hearing damage is an issue by then.

I've had a trawl through my journals and the net. There are a few studies that look as if over scanning can cause lower birth weight in some cases, up to 30%. An on going study in Australia is trying to show that it can cause white blood cells to malform but this is not proven as yet. No mention of skin abnormalities Luke.

In the UK it is also economic reasons they have for not scanning women without good indications for doing so.Scanning time is money.
How are you doing Mirielle?

I am from South Africa and they are pro scanning. We were assured by or gynie that scanning for short times does not really harm babies. I really looked forward to my appointments, I was going to have a date with my child. We have a very healthy little boy running around. NO PROB!!!