When a pregnancy becomes a challenge, the counselors from the Pregnancy Emergency Hotline are here for you.
People who are pregnant, those close to them and professionals can contact the counselors and draw on their knowledge of the assistance available at any time, both before and after the birth. The counselors are there to support you regardless of your gender, background, faith, sexual orientation or sexual identity.
Chat service
You can make contact with a counselor easily and securely via our chat. They are subject to a legal duty of confidentiality and give advice via an encrypted connection.
Telephone advice
Understanding and always available, without any fixed expectations regarding the outcome: our counselors listen to you attentively, arrange suitable support and put you in contact with advice centers near you.
0800 40 40 020
Email advice
Contact our counselors via email in confidence. Any advice offered via this route will likewise be swift, secure and encrypted. Your identity will remain protected.
Confidential birth
Confidential birth is designed to help pregnant people who want to keep their pregnancy a secret. It enables them to give birth anonymously and within a medically safe environment. A counselor from the pregnancy advice center is available to support pregnant people before and after the birth on request. The counselor is legally obliged to maintain confidentiality: nobody will know about the individual’s pregnancy or birth.
Get advice from the Pregnancy Emergency Hotline, with no fixed expectations regarding the outcome, or contact one of the pregnancy advice centers across Germany. You do not need to choose your nearest pregnancy advice center: you are free to select any location you like if you are worried about being seen or recognized, for example.
Even if you are shortly due to give birth or are already at the clinic, you still have the right to choose a confidential birth. Speak to a medical professional, such as your emergency medical technician or midwife. They will then get in touch with a pregnancy advice center, which will get all the necessary formalities underway for you.
If you want to have a confidential birth, you need to prove your identity to a counselor at a pregnancy advice center on one single occasion. Your personal details will be stored securely in an envelope at the Federal Office of Family Affairs and Civil Society Functions. This means your counselor is the only person who knows your true identity. They are legally obliged to maintain confidentiality (including towards the Youth Welfare Office, if you have any other children). All your antenatal and postnatal appointments, and the birth itself, are carried out under a pseudonym that you can choose yourself. Your safety has the highest priority. Nobody involved will know your identity.
When the child turns 16, they will be able to open the envelope and see your identity – they are the only person permitted to do so. Knowledge of one’s own background is among a person’s fundamental rights in Germany. It is important for the child’s personal development. However, if you would be put at risk by the disclosure of your identity at this point, you can object to this from the child’s 15th birthday onwards. To do so, you need to prove that revealing this information to the child would put you in danger.
Confidential birth is based on a law that applies across Germany. The protection and physical wellbeing of the person giving birth and of the child are the top priorities. This law was enacted to protect pregnant people and children from the risks of an unassisted birth. In addition, it also offers a legally secure foundation for all individuals and bodies involved to act upon.
A confidential birth can take place in every maternity clinic and hospital across Germany, or, on request, with a midwife at home. The state covers the costs of medical care, the birth and follow-up care.
You can choose the child’s name yourself. The birth will be entered into the register of births under your pseudonym to ensure your identity remains protected. Your counselor from the pregnancy advice center is there for you, even after you have given birth. You are not alone!
When the child is born, the Youth Welfare Office assumes legal guardianship until the child is placed with adoptive parents.
Materials
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External links
More information on the topic can be found here.
