Newsletter

On Satur­day, March 7, the INIS Net­work for Birth Cul­tu­re met online. The agen­da included pre­pa­ring the association’s con­sti­tu­tio­nal com­plaint for “fair birth” with the aim of achie­ving reco­gni­ti­on of vio­lence in obste­tric care and, as a result, final­ly com­pre­hen­si­ve reforms and con­cre­te impro­ve­ments in obste­tric care – for women, fami­lies, child­ren, and the peo­p­le who care for them. They want to have it cla­ri­fied whe­ther the sta­te is suf­fi­ci­ent­ly ful­fil­ling its duty to pro­tect pregnant women, birt­hing women, and fami­lies – and whe­ther exis­ting frame­work con­di­ti­ons addi­tio­nal­ly vio­la­te the fun­da­men­tal rights of the pro­fes­sio­nals pro­vi­ding care. You can find the full text at www.gerechtegeburt.de/Verfassungsbescherde. You can co-sign the con­sti­tu­tio­nal com­plaint and sup­port it with dona­ti­ons. The con­sti­tu­tio­nal com­plaint by two mothers, which we repor­ted on, has now been accept­ed by the Fede­ral Con­sti­tu­tio­nal Court.

A state­ment on the new mid­wi­fery assis­tance con­tract is to be pre­pared; a working group has been set up for this pur­po­se. We know of a mid­wi­fe who is fil­ing for insol­ven­cy becau­se of the new con­tract (a sin­gle mother); many other mid­wi­ves in pre­na­tal and post­na­tal care have stop­ped working. Care for pregnant women and new mothers is sever­ely at risk.

In addi­ti­on, the poli­cy state­ment that the net­work adopted when it was foun­ded in 2015 will be revi­sed for cur­rent rele­van­ce, and joint pro­jects will be deve­lo­ped. If you would like to par­ti­ci­pa­te, plea­se cont­act our secre­ta­ri­at: info@isppm.ngo

At the Ger­man Con­fe­rence on Psy­cho­so­ma­tic Medi­ci­ne and Psy­cho­the­ra­py, the topic “birth trau­ma — ‘High pre­va­lence and clear requi­re­ments for care’ was dis­cus­sed in detail An important con­tri­bu­ti­on to ensu­ring that the signi­fi­can­ce and impact of the birth expe­ri­ence for mother and child find their way more into deli­very rooms, gyneco­lo­gi­cal prac­ti­ces, and pedia­tric and mate­r­ni­ty wards. Accor­ding to the FIGO state­ment (as we repor­ted in our last news­let­ter), this important topic within pre- and peri­na­tal psy­cho­lo­gy is evi­dent­ly being taken more and more serious­ly by experts in the field. Read more here

Pod­cast “How pover­ty lea­ves its mark alre­a­dy during pregnan­cy…”

Even though we know the importance of a healt­hy diet in gene­ral, and espe­ci­al­ly during pregnan­cy and the post­na­tal peri­od, I repea­ted­ly expe­ri­ence some­thing dif­fe­rent in prac­ti­ce. Link to the pod­cast

The Euro­pe-wide pro­test (over 2,500 signa­tures) against the draft law by the Greek Minis­try of Health to rest­rict mid­wi­fery prac­ti­ce has led to the law not being pas­sed as plan­ned (here is the email about this from ENCA). Our Greek part­ner asso­cia­ti­on in ENCA remains in cont­act with the minis­ter to influence the new draft law. We repor­ted on this in the last news­let­ter.

The World Con­gress on Birth will take place in Istan­bul from Octo­ber 9 to 11 as an in-per­son event. It is sup­port­ed by the Tur­ki­sh Minis­try of Health and the Tur­ki­sh Govern­ment. We are proud to be a con­gress part­ner as ISPPM. The con­gress is orga­ni­zed by our Vice Pre­si­dent Nese Kara­be­kir and Vice Pre­si­dent Dr. Hakan Coker, as well as the “Hand to Hand for Birth Asso­cia­ti­on” (NGO) and Istan­bul Birth Aca­de­my. The World Con­gress in Istan­bul will wel­co­me spea­k­ers and par­ti­ci­pan­ts from all over the world under the patro­na­ge of Mrs. Emi­ne Erdo­gan (wife of Tur­ki­sh Pre­si­dent Erdo­gan), who is deep­ly com­mit­ted to respectful birth.

Remin­der: The online lec­tures from our inter­na­tio­nal ISPPM con­fe­rence on Febru­ary 1, 2026 can be view­ed on our web­site for €30 until the end of April 2026!

The Fede­ral Asso­cia­ti­on “Das früh­ge­bo­re­ne Kind” e.V. has now beco­me the Bun­des­ver­band Früh­ge­bo­re­ne e.V. The new free online maga­zi­ne “Früh­ge­bo­re­ne”, laun­ched in 2026, can be read on the online publi­shing plat­form Yum­pu here.

Inter­views

• with Kris­ti­na Daun and our Pre­si­dent Kola Brön­ner about ISPPM
• Two inter­views with Kola B. Brön­ner now on the web­site www.alleseiten.de. You need to crea­te an account for the web­site and will then have free access to the inter­views.

GAIMH lec­tu­re series online: “Deepe­ning pre­na­tal aspects in psy­cho­the­ra­py and coun­sel­ling” (orga­ni­zed by the GAIMH Working Group on Pre­na­tal Psy­cho­lo­gy, Psy­cho­the­ra­py and Psy­cho­so­ma­tics)
May 27, 2026, 7:00–8:30 PM: First days of an embryo and the “Soma­tic blue print” with Regi­na Bücher
Sep­tem­ber 17, 2026, 7:00–8:30 PM; “The time of implan­ta­ti­on” with Klaus Käp­pe­li
Novem­ber 25, 2026, 7:00–8:30 PM; “Umbi­li­cal cord dyna­mics – laug­hing, cur­sing or crying?” with Ursi Geh­re
Janu­ary 21, 2027, 7:00–8:30 PM; “Natu­ral birth” with Regi­na Bücher

Inter­na­tio­nal Day of Action for Mid­wi­ves on May 5, 2026. This year under the mot­to “Take a break….. and chan­ge some­thing!”
More info, post­card & Eng­lish ver­si­on: https://erzaehlcafe.net/
Coming tog­e­ther, exchan­ging ide­as, paus­ing and reflec­ting, but also con­side­ring new paths as pos­si­ble. With the­se “sto­ry breaks”, Heb­am­men für Deutsch­land e.V. aims to coun­ter­act the ongo­ing over­load of mothers, bring the break to the fore­front, and build local net­works. They will incor­po­ra­te the coll­ec­ted expe­ri­en­ces into demands for chan­ge.

Under the lea­der­ship of Prof. Weid­ner, the S3 gui­de­line “PERITRAUMA – Peri­par­tum trau­ma­tiza­ti­on” is curr­ent­ly being deve­lo­ped, fun­ded by the Inno­va­ti­on Fund of the G‑BA. The aim is to crea­te stan­dar­diza­ti­on in dia­gno­stics, pre­ven­ti­on, and the­ra­py.

“The foun­da­ti­on for lon­ge­vi­ty is laid in the womb” – For cur­rent reasons, you can read an artic­le from the Frank­fur­ter All­ge­mei­ne Zei­tung from mid-March 2026 here.

New illus­tra­ted volu­me on pregnan­cy and birth: “Visua­li­zing Birth” Anna M. Hen­nes­sey, PhD. As part of her PhD rese­arch, this book was crea­ted with visua­liza­ti­ons and art in reli­gious and Chi­ne­se tra­di­ti­ons in the con­text of neu­ro­sci­ence, phi­lo­so­phy, and sport psy­cho­lo­gy. She is Foun­der and Direc­tor, Socie­ty for the Stu­dy of Pregnan­cy and Birth (SSPRB), Foun­der, Visua­li­zing Birth, read more here (Eng­lish text)

After years of poli­ti­cal res­traint, the topic of ‘egg dona­ti­on’ could be deba­ted in the Ger­man Bun­des­tag for the first time during this legis­la­ti­ve peri­od. Open­ness to a socie­tal and par­lia­men­ta­ry deba­te exists among mem­bers of seve­ral par­lia­men­ta­ry groups, as rese­arch by the Deut­sches Ärz­te­blatt shows. Read the artic­le here

If you would also like to announ­ce events on our web­site, you can crea­te them yours­elf as an ISPPM mem­ber via the log­in page. Elfi Elli­ot (Secre­ta­ri­at) will be hap­py to sup­port you. You can also send all acti­vi­ties and events rela­ted to pre- and peri­na­tal psy­cho­lo­gy and medi­ci­ne to our secre­ta­ri­at; we will include them in the next circular/newsletter.