For International Women & Mothers
Motherhood,but make it international.
In English, from one international mother to another, far from home.
9 min read · Last updated October 2026 · Written and reviewed by Emma, Birth & Mother
On this page
Welcome to Birth & Mother
Motherhood is not linear
Hello, and welcome. I'm Emma, and I'm so glad you found my page. Whether you are expecting your first baby, at home with a newborn, or years into motherhood, and wherever you are in Germany, this page is for you. I grew up in Wales, I have been a mother for a decade, and I have three children: two born in Germany, one in London.
Birth & Mother started as a place for international women finding their way through pregnancy and birth in Germany. Somewhere to make sense of the system, find the right support, and understand what was actually there for them.
Along the way it became something more. I started thinking about what I would have wanted when I was becoming a mother. Not another place telling me what to buy, how to give birth, or how to be a good mother. A quiet corner of the internet, somewhere to pause, learn, and get curious about what it means to become a mother.
Motherhood has a long span. It runs from the first positive test through birth, the postpartum weeks, the toddler years and long after, and it keeps changing. How I prepared for my births and planned the weeks after them shaped the mother I became. I am still changing now.
So this is a place to be curious about all of it. About our bodies. About womanhood and motherhood. About the things we have inherited, the things we are questioning, and the things we might want to do differently.
There is a great deal of care around mothers in Germany: midwives, doulas, therapists, bodyworkers, educators. Knowing where to look is often the hard part. This is a good place to start, and I am still building it.
Lost in Translation
Finding people who speak your language
Your midwife, your gynaecologist, your baby's check-ups at the paediatrician, a therapist if you want one: most of this care happens in German, and the people who would usually come along with you may be in another country.
I gave birth in Germany while I was still learning the language, and I often left appointments with more questions than answers. English-speaking care exists across Germany. Finding it takes some asking. A few ways in that work:
Ask your health insurer
Ask for English-speaking midwives and practices, from gynaecologists to paediatricians. Many run a midwife matching service.
Search by language
The official doctor search lets you filter doctors and therapists by the languages they speak.
Ask other parents
Local expat and parent groups are a good source of first-hand recommendations.
Ask on the tour
When you tour a hospital or go to an information evening, ask directly whether English-speaking midwives are on the team.
Start early
If you are pregnant, start your midwife search the week you get a positive test. Demand is high, and many are booked early.
The full how-to on finding and keeping a midwife is in the Guides, and so is who does what in your care, and who decides.
What's Different
What surprises international women about care in Germany
Care for women here has real strengths, and some gaps worth knowing about early. These are the ones that come up with the women I work with.
What women find good
Postnatal recovery courses are covered.
Your insurer pays for up to ten hours with a midwife or physiotherapist, and the course has to be finished by the end of the ninth month after the birth. You do not have to start straight away. If something still pulls, leaks or aches months on, your midwife, your gynaecologist or a pelvic floor physiotherapist can help.
Midwife care runs longer than many expect.
It covers pregnancy, the birth and the first twelve weeks after, and there is more help with feeding for as long as you breastfeed.
You can go straight to a gynaecologist.
You do not need a referral from a family doctor first.
Home help can be covered.
If pregnancy or the birth means you cannot keep the household running, and nobody else at home can, your insurer can pay for help.
What women find harder
Some tests are offered as extras you pay for yourself.
Whether you have them is your choice, and you can ask what each one is for before you decide.
Waiting lists for a therapist are often long.
A national appointment service, run by the doctors’ associations, can arrange a first consultation, and your gynaecologist, family doctor or midwife can help you find a way in.
What your insurance pays for around pregnancy and birth is laid out in What Insurance Covers, and recovery after the birth in The First Year.
Building a Village
Your own village when family is far away
German maternity care is generous, but it quietly assumes family nearby: the mother, the sisters, the friends who drop round with food. If yours are in another country, the village has to be built, and it can be, at any stage.
Pregnancy is the easiest time to start. Your midwife comes to your home in the weeks after the birth. What the system does not cover is the rest: the meals, the laundry, someone to sit with you while you feed. A trained postpartum helper can be part-covered by your insurer in certain situations. A meal chain among friends, a doula, baby groups, English-speaking parent groups: this is how women here build it, and none of it is a luxury.
How to set up help at home and how the weeks after birth work here are laid out in the Guides. For how birth care works, start with Birth in Germany, or find your way to what fits where you are.
with EmmaBy video
The Years After
Becoming a mother
Becoming a mother does not finish when the postpartum weeks do. Months and years in, this is what women bring to me: who they are now, and how much of the old life still fits. The loss of autonomy, and of plans they had made. A second or third baby, and a household that runs on them. Raising children in a culture that is not their own.
Some want to talk about a birth, recent or from years ago. We can do that in my one-to-one sessions, at your own pace. I am not a therapist. If what you bring needs more than a doula can offer, I will help you find a perinatal mental health specialist or a counsellor who can.
The First Year covers recovery, matrescence and becoming a mother in Germany.
Cycle Health
Your cycle through the years
Your cycle runs alongside all of it: its return after a birth, the years with young children, and the changes that come later. That is part of the span of motherhood too.
Some conditions take a long time to be recognised. Endometriosis often takes years to diagnose. My own adenomyosis was diagnosed after my pregnancies, which had been my pain-free years. If something about your cycle is not right for you, it is worth raising again, and your gynaecologist can refer you on.
I am moving into perimenopause myself, the years of change before menopause. Your gynaecologist is the place to start that conversation, and you can bring it up yourself at any appointment.
How I Can Help
Care that starts with what you need
I am a Certified Nurturing Birth Doula. I support women through pregnancy, birth, the postpartum weeks and the years after, in English: with information, with preparation, and with someone beside them who knows the German system from the inside.
The packages under Doula Care are my guide to how I work. I built them from my training and from my own years as an international mother in Germany. They are a starting point, and the support I give each woman is shaped around her.
What women bring to me varies. One wants to understand her options before a hospital appointment. One wants to plan the weeks after the birth, with no family nearby. One is expecting her second baby and wants this time to go differently. One wants to talk about a birth from years ago. We start with what you need most.
Wherever you are in all of this, I would love to hear from you. You don't need to know what you are looking for first. Write to me, or arrange 30 minutes with me by video, and tell me where you are. I work by video wherever you are, and in person around Potsdam.
Where to begin
Finding your way with 
If this is your first time here, Birth & Mother is a resource for English-speaking women in Germany, from pregnancy through the years after. These are the main places to start.
Not sure where to start?
Find Your Way
Answer a few questions about where you are, and it will point you to the guides, the people and the support that fit.
Start here
From the Journal
Emma's own account
The Birth & Mother Journal is where Emma writes about pregnancy, birth, and motherhood in Germany from her own experience, in plain English. She started it because there was so little written about any of it for international women.
Birth Without Your Village
On what it means to become a mother far from the people who would usually be close by.
Giving Birth in Germany: What I Did Not Know
A practical overview of how the German maternity system works, written for women coming from elsewhere.
The Fourth Trimester in Germany
What postpartum recovery looks like in Germany, and how to make the most of what the postpartum tradition offers.
Read along
The whole of Birth in Germany is here to read. Leave your email for regular letters from the Journal, and you will be first to read whatever Emma writes next.
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Come and say hello
Whatever brings you to Birth & Mother
Whether you have a question about how something works, or you want to talk through what support could look like in English, write to me.
If what you need sits outside what a doula can offer, I will point you to whoever can actually help.