Giving birth - tips on having a baby in Munich

Thank for the link Inka. We went to see both and been to Infoabende, just can´t make up my mind. Fortunately, I still have time to decide.

Hope you'll come to a decision you're happy with. And congratulations, by the way!

Wow, Miluska, you are?! Congratulations!

Inka, belated congratulations to you too! I only heard about your baby few weeks ago.

Tigi, thanks, yes I am

Thanks, Miluska. Enjoy your pregnancy - it's an amazing experience!!!

Agree. My wife had it for our births and you get private rooms and what is best the chef or oberarzt delivers the baby. We got this in Taxisklinik.


I think with the nerves of the birth and the exhaustion after the last thing I'd be worried about is whether a laptop works near there.

I recommend Taxisklinik with private insurance. My son and daughter were both born there. Excellent care and the nurses were tasty too.

Jeremy, thanks for the tip. We are also thinking about Taxisklinik.
But this is completely different point of view: I can take the advantage of my private insurance while my husbans enjoys the look at the tasty nurses

The chef? Delivers babies?
Private insurance allows the chef to deliver babies.
Well I never!

It seems that culinary metaphors are today's special:


Edit: It's contagious, too. It has even spread to the movie thread:

Yes, I knew that. Obviously, they only let you give birth there at all if they are extremely confident that the pregnancy went well and there is no added risk for the birth. Of course, something can always go wrong, but the Dritter Orden is literally round the corner. I plan to start visiting the midwifes there for my next check-up, thus allowing them to follow my pregnancy closely and make a considered judgement about whether or not they can recommend a birth in-house...

Kathie, I don´t know whether you are aware of that, but you have to be "angemeldet" if you want to go to Dritter Orden. I don´t know how they handle it in case of emergency.

Thanks for that info miluska. I'll ask when I next see the midwives...

This is Dolfan's wife. I gave birth in a hospital that did not have emergency care or a pediatrician on staff. Biggest mistake of my life. Our child had to be rushed to the Kinderklinik after birth and I was stuck at the original hospital. You don't want to think that anything bad will ever happen, but always be prepared and do your research. We didn't and really regret it.

Am new on this forum, but have few things to add, have had three children here in munich my first in wolfart klinik in graefelfing, was great and like a hotel staff and doctors excellent, my other two were born in Krüsmann klinik also super, even without intensive care for the babies my third was touch and go at the end of the day and without the doctor she wouldnt be here and sleeping in her bed upstairs!! It is so when they move the baby to clinic then you go too. Never had a problem due to my bad german staff all pleasant and helpfull. to all who a re pregnant I would say try and ge zusatliche versicherung while it does help!!
And to colin who did a tallk about kinder krippe as soon as possible to register, that it what gets me mad these are the best times for a baby I am not against when it is a must that they need the money that mama goes out to work after 3 months!! but my question is why do these folk have babies, only to give them away for the whole day or morning? I have children so that I can see them grow and to watch every day what they do new, before i get answers back i also work for these mums, I am the one who sees that first step, smile and word, then i think what have you missed!!

Spanish certified Doula trained in London by Dr. Michel Odent and recognized by Doula UK offers emotional and physical support to English speaking women during pregnancy, labour, and post-natal periode.

A Doula is "a woman experienced in childbirth who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after childbirth." (Klaus, Kennell and Klaus in Mothering the Mother).

proyectodoula@yahoo.com

Ana

My family is covered by insurance from TK-Techniskier Krankenkasse(http://www.tk-online.de/centaurus/generator/tk-online.de/s07__english/english.html)
My wife is pregnant and after i read all posts from this thread i am wondering if my wife will be treated good when she will give birth...do i have to get a Zusatzversicherung(just in case), or do i have to transfer our insurance to a private insurance company.
any answer will help us.many thanks,

I am also with TK, and had a good experience at Geisenhofer.

2-bed ward, ensuite toilet and bath. To get the private room at Geisenhofer, I would have had to pay €100 per night, which I didn't, and so ended up in the 2-bed ward, which I didn't regret. That was 2 years ago, so I'm sure it would cost more than €100 now.

Chefarzt looked after me while I was there, even though I was with TK, because the Chefarzt and my appointed gynae substitute each other on their daily rounds.

Has anyone had any experience with Dr. Lambert and her team at the Taxisklinik? Would love to hear about it, specifically about what you felt her philosophy was in respect of interventive methods (induction, episoptomy). Feel free to reply by PM.

Hi Inessa, didn't have baby at Taxisklinik but just wanted to say, its not so much the opinion of the doctors that matter about epistomy/induction etc its your opinion that counts...I expect you have alerady, but inform yourself of what you will and won't accept and make sure its in your file so the hopsital staff know it beforehand (birth plan stylee) For instance - only c-section under emergency circumstances, no epistomy, walking epidural only, etc etc

Although, saying that its always good to expect the unexpected as births rarely go to a set plan but at least you feel a bit prepared :-)

Good luck - its worth it all in the end.

Just wondering if anyone has got any recent experiences of giving birth at either Klinikum Rechts der Isar or Harlaching? We're considering these two hospitals but just wanted to find out what other people thought about them. Many thanks.

Well, not entirely recently, but I did have my daughter 15 months ago at Harlaching. My husband and I were very happy with the experience. Just a few random thoughts:

+ The birthing pool is *wonderful*, for as long as you can stay in it
+ I really appreciated that they completely respected my wishes to have a completely unmedicated birth
+ Even though I lost all ability to speak any German while I was in labor, the midwife was pretty good at communicating with me in English
+ The doctor who attended me was great - we really liked him
+ The nurses were very attentive and friendly

- The food was terrible, but it's only for a couple of days anyways.
- Breastfeeding help could have been a little bit better.

Overall, it was a great experience for us. I would go back there for my next baby in a heartbeat.

I'd definitely recomend going to visit both places for their Infoabend, and you can also go on a private tour if you arrange it in advance. One of them will probably just feel more "right" to you than the other - an emotional thing I guess. Good luck, and hope everything goes well!

Hi There,

I have just arrived in Munich this week. I am 6 and a half months pregnant and I am looking for recommendatios on ob/gyn and kliniks for the birth. My insurance will be state rather than private. Has anyone used Dr Uta Euler? Also I am not sure of the process. Do I need to go to an OB/Gyn and then select hospital and when I hear about a midwive is this only for aftercare with the hospital providing the mid wive for delivery. Basically I don't know much and would really appreciate some advice and recommendations.
Thanks
Niamh Blake

It's a good idea to choose your OB/GYN and ask if s/he has a recommendation for, or affiliation with, a particular clinic, but these two decisions can be made entirely separately, as well.

At the clinic, you get whatever midwife is available when you're in labor, and there may be a change of shifts during your labor. You choose the after-care midwife yourself (I think there is a thread on this somewhere.) After-care midwives usually limit the geographical area of the new mothers they visit, so you'll have to go with someone in your immediate area.

Hi Cinza
Thanks for the help and for responding. I will make an appointment with an OB and take it from there. Thanks again. Niamh

Local people really don't know how much one doesn't know about health care in a new country; I got the impression that I was being passed around like a DHL package when I arrived, pregnant. It's been half a year and here's what I've come to understand:

• Continuity of care via a GP is important to me but not a priority in Germany. Germans love to specialise, so they bounce between specialists for medical care.
• For prenatal care I had a choice of an ObGyn, a private midwife, or the hospital midwives. Pros and cons of each:
  ObGyns are more likely to speak English, are the direct link to regular (monthly!) ultrasound photos, but don't actually care for pregnant women - they care for their uterus - heavy on the Gyn, light on Ob. Midwives have a less medical, more practical methods (depending on your preference, that might be a pro or a con) but may have to refer you out for some tests/services, and if the one you like specializes in only ONE of pre-, peri- or postnatal care, you could end up with a growing fleet of care providers.
• Hospital/clinic midwives will deliver your baby, and often also offer antenatal classes. There will be a doctor present at the birth, but I've been led to believe that's more of an insurance issue than a care factor.
• Going to antenatal classes at the hospital/clinic where you mean to deliver means you'll be more familiar with the facility and the staff's attitude about things (now's the time to find out if the "pain relief is always available" line from the infoabend translates to "get good at this deep breathing stuff, because around here we don't believe in epidurals unless you're half dead" or "don't bother learning this deep breathing stuff because we give out epidurals with the check-in paperwork"), and you'll have a better chance of knowing the person who will be seeing you from your less-than-best side
• As we live in a small town, the hospital midwives also provide post-natal care. I could hire a private midwife for that if I wanted, but these women have been with me this far, right?
• You can go to various 'amts' for technical info on elterngeld and birth registration etc, but I've found that the midwives can help with this too. My ObGyn, not so much.
• Then you're supposed to get a pediatrician, but I'm really hoping to find a GP that will cover baby care too.

In the end, we defined our priorities for care style, chose a delivery facility based on how well we felt it "fit" us, and made decisions about care providers from there.
Is this in any way helpful?? I hope so!