Newsletter
September 2025
Dear Members and Interested Parties,
We hope you had a restful summer and were able to experience sufficient sunshine, moments of rest, and relaxation.
Finally, the time has come: After a long preparation period, the new ISPPM website has gone online. Some pages still need to be redesigned, including the therapist directory and the extended board page. For the latter, a structure appropriate to the changes of recent years is being created.
Preparations for the annual conference continue: The early bird discount applies—as announced in the last newsletter—until September 30! If you wish to have meals at the youth hostel, please inform us by September 30 when registering. After that, meal bookings will only be possible directly with the youth hostel—without guarantee.
Room reservations through ISPPM were only possible until September 15; this can now also be requested directly at the Euregional Youth Guesthouse (aachen@jugendherberge.de, 0241.71101-0).
ISPPM Conference November 7–9, 2025 : "Traumatic Births – Traumatized Society – The Significance of Pre- and Perinatal Psychology – Interdisciplinary".
If you have questions regarding registration, please contact the secretariat: info@isppm.ngo The early bird discount applies until September 30.
Our attractive program includes the film "Sheltered in the Motherland" by filmmakers Uscha Madeisky and Dagmar Margotsdotter, both of whom have been researching matriarchal cultures for decades. We will hear a lecture on the birth culture of the Kogi, an indigenous people who have lived peacefully in the mountains of Colombia for over 700 years. We look forward to the consistently valuable and enriching lectures by Sven Hildebrandt and Lutz Janus. On Saturday, we will explore the conference theme in depth with our respective professional groups and experts, see link to the program
To open our gala evening, we were able to engage actress Johanna Marx and director Lisa Meyer. They have brought to life the results of interviews with mothers, midwives, doulas, and physicians about pregnancy and birth in an impressive theater piece titled "heraus." The premiere took place in Celle at the end of August. Here is the flyer front/back.
Michael Odent
At the age of 95, Dr. Michel Odent (born July 7, 1930, in Bresles, France/photo by Xavier Caré-Wikimedia Commons) passed away on August 19 surrounded by his family in London.
As a French obstetrician, he became known in the 1980s for introducing water birth in Western Europe. This option is now a standard offering in many hospitals.
He strongly advocated for home births as a safe place and for breastfeeding. Like Dr. Frederick Leboyer, he abandoned active obstetrics, as he came to believe that as a physician he was more of a disturbance during birth. He followed his friend and colleague to London and established the Primal Health Centre, a very large database of studies and research findings on natural birth.
He leaves us a great resource!
Read here the obituary by Prof. Dr. Sven Hildebrandt. “It does matter how we are born!”—this statement by the great French obstetrician Dr. Michel Odent was presented at our annual conference in 2012; here you can see the announcement from that time.
Hall of Honor
What if peace could be traced back to our very first experiences of Life?
This year’s honorees are the pioneers: Dr. Eva Reich, Dr. Jenö Raffai, Dr. György Hidas, Cherionna Menzam-Sills, Matthew Appleton, and Phyllis Klaus. The ceremony will take place on Wednesday, November 12, at 3 PM CET. You can register now, see link here
Health After Abortion
Aspects of Aftercare
Things are moving forward and the topic of support and aftercare is becoming more public. On October 1, 2025, the association Deborah e.V. is hosting an online event on this topic, with Ludwig Janus among the speakers… see link
Mother from Greenland Needs Support
ENCA sent us an article about a young mother born in Greenland who lives in Denmark and, under new legislation there, was not allowed to keep her newborn baby with her. Read here in English.
Secretariat in Transition
As previously announced, Berit Burggräf is currently handing over the secretariat to Elfi Elliot. As you can see in the picture—everything is in flux 🙂
Study as Part of a Master’s Thesis on “Birth Experiences and Their Influencing Factors”
We are forwarding a request and appeal for support from a student who is conducting a study as part of her master’s thesis on the topic “Birth Experiences and Their Influencing Factors” (see link). You are welcome to participate or forward it to the target group of mothers who gave birth to a baby in the past year.
Study on “Vaccinations, Vaccination Timing, and Vaccination Counseling”
Witten/Herdecke University is conducting a study on the above topic for and with parents of infants. Further information: https://www.uni-wh.de/initial/, Contact: Jennifer Wrenger, initial@uni-wh.de
Study by RWTH Aachen
Here is another research project from RWTH Aachen: “Family and Working Life in Middle Age”—A longitudinal research project by RWTH Aachen University, IFP Institute of Psychology. The study is aimed at working people who have at least one adult child and are at least 50 years old. Contact Jasmin
Dorry: Projekt-lebensmitte@psych.rwth-aachen.de, 0241–8096013, https://www.soscisurvey.de/familienunderwerbsleben/
If you would like to announce events, please feel free to send them to us.
We wish you a wonderful start to autumn.
Warm regards from the Board and Secretariat,
Kola B. Brönner, Berit Burggraef, and Elfi Elliot
Announcements
Recommendations of the month
Newsletters / Podcasts / Further education offers
- August News — Prenatal Alliance
- September News — Prenatal Alliance
- Newsletter Thomas Harms
- Podcast with Katherina Desery from Mother Hood e.V.
- 39th Conference on Psychohistory “and then the soul slid to the right” March 21–23, 2025: Videos of the lectures (see link)
- Lectures from the Otto Rank Day Nov. 24 Link: Lectures
- October 2–3, 2025 ISPPM Switzerland: Hands-on Craniosacral Therapy — Getting Started
- October 24–26, 2025 ISPPM Switzerland: Prenatal Umbilical Cord Experiences
- November 7–9, 2025 ISPPM Annual Conference in Aachen: “Traumatic Births — Traumatized Society — The Significance of Pre- and Perinatal Psychology Interdisciplinary”
- Dates for continuing education, self-experience, and couple seminars with Franz Renggli, Switzerland
- Here you will find on the homepage a complete version of the online survey on the S3 guideline, as well as each question individually for reading and downloading.
- ISPPM statement on altruistic surrogacy
- ISPPM statement on §218
- Statement ENCA: European study on violence in obstetrics