Quick reference · Potsdam
Where to give birth in Potsdam
Four birth spaces, side by side, so you can see how they differ and ask the questions that matter to you.
Last updated June 2026 · Birth & Mother
A note on St. Josefs
St. Josefs in Potsdam is expecting to close its maternity unit from 1 August 2026. For now it stays in the comparison below, so the picture is complete while things are still settling. Our thoughts are with the midwives and everyone who has been cared for there, and at Birth & Mother we stand alongside them through this uncertain time.
How to use this comparison
This is neutral, published information, gathered to help you ask your own questions. It is not a ranking, a recommendation, or medical advice, and no birth space here is being favoured over another. Figures change, and what is right for you depends on your pregnancy and what your midwife (Hebamme) advises. It is always worth confirming the current details directly with the birth space and your care team.
01
The four birth spaces
Two hospitals and two birth houses, each with its own character. For context, around a third of births across Germany are by caesarean.
Klinikum Ernst von Bergmann
Hospital · Perinatalzentrum Level 1
- Births a year
- About 1,600 (2022)
- Caesarean rate
- Around 30% (2024)†
- Care level
- Perinatalzentrum Level 1, the highest, with neonatal intensive care
- Midwife-led care
- Offered, midwife-led birth without routine doctor involvement where all is well
- Register from
- Around 30 weeks, or from 24 weeks for complex pregnancies (birth-planning talk from 36 weeks)
- Water birth
- Yes, two of five rooms equipped
- Pain relief
- Epidural (PDA) with anaesthesia on site around the clock, plus nitrous oxide (Lachgas)
- If baby needs intensive care
- On site. This is the only neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Potsdam.
St. Josefs-Krankenhaus
Hospital · Alexianer
- Births a year
- More than 800
- Caesarean rate
- Not publicly published, ask at registration
- Care level
- Basic and standard obstetric care, no neonatal unit
- Midwife-led care
- Strong one-to-one midwife care; no separately named midwife-led unit
- Register from
- Book from around 24 weeks; appointment between 32 and 38 weeks
- Water birth
- Yes, two rooms with a birth pool
- Pain relief
- Epidural (PDA), walking epidural, and nitrous oxide (Lachgas)
- If baby needs intensive care
- No neonatal unit here; a baby needing intensive care is transferred to EvB by a specialist neonatal team.
Geburtshaus Apfelbaum
Birth house · midwife-led
- Births a year
- Not published (birth houses do not report figures)
- Caesarean rate
- No surgery on site; a caesarean means transfer to hospital
- Care level
- Low-risk births only, no surgery or neonatal care
- Midwife-led care
- Yes, freestanding and fully midwife-led
- Register from
- Contact early; births taken from 37+0 to 41+6 weeks
- Water birth
- Yes, a normal part of how they work
- Pain relief
- No epidural; water, movement, acupuncture, and continuous midwife comfort
- If baby needs intensive care
- Not on site. Urgent transfers go to EvB (about 3 km away), agreed in advance at your birth-planning talk.
Geburtshaus am Neuen Garten
Birth house · midwife-led
- Births a year
- Not published (a small, two-midwife practice)
- Caesarean rate
- No surgery on site; a caesarean means transfer to hospital
- Care level
- Low-risk births only, no surgery or neonatal care
- Midwife-led care
- Yes, freestanding and fully midwife-led, with two midwives at every birth
- Register from
- Contact as early as you can; on-call from 37 weeks
- Water birth
- Not stated on their site, worth asking directly
- Pain relief
- No epidural; non-medical midwife comfort
- If baby needs intensive care
- Not on site. The transfer hospital is agreed with your midwives; intensive care ultimately means EvB, the only NICU in Potsdam.
† The caesarean figure for Ernst von Bergmann comes from a public data aggregator and is being confirmed against the clinic's own quality report (Qualitätsbericht). St. Josefs does not publish a separate figure; you can ask for it when you register. Both hospitals publish quality reports you are entitled to see.
02
What the care levels mean
German maternity units are graded by how much specialist newborn care they have on site. The levels run from Level 1, the most specialised, with a full neonatal intensive care unit, down to a basic maternity unit (Geburtsklinik) for straightforward births. A higher level is not “better” for everyone; it simply means more intensive newborn care is in the building, which matters most for the smallest and earliest babies.
In and around Potsdam, Ernst von Bergmann is a Level 1 centre, the only one in the city. St. Josefs provides standard obstetric care without a neonatal unit. The two birth houses, Apfelbaum and am Neuen Garten, are midwife-led and take low-risk births only, with no surgery or newborn intensive care on site; in care-level terms they sit alongside one another, with hospital transfer always arranged in advance.
Which level is right for you is part of the conversation with your midwife and gynaecologist, who weigh it against your own pregnancy. A healthy, low-risk pregnancy has genuine choice here. For how the settings themselves differ in feel and approach, see Where to Give Birth.
03
If your baby needs intensive care
This is a hard thing to read about, and most families never need it. But it helps to understand it calmly now, rather than for the first time in the moment.
Potsdam has one neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), at Ernst von Bergmann. If you give birth there and your baby needs intensive care, that care is in the same building. If you give birth at St. Josefs or at one of the birth houses and your baby needs that level of care, your baby would be transferred to EvB by a specialist neonatal transport team, in a heated transport incubator, with a neonatologist and nurse.
Where possible, German practice is to anticipate this before the birth: if a baby is known to be likely to need intensive care, the birth itself is often planned at the Level 1 centre, so mother and baby are not separated. When a transfer does happen after birth, parents are kept as close to their baby as possible, through visiting and skin-to-skin (kangaroo) care. The practical arrangements, including where the mother stays and recovers, are made case by case between the clinics, so this is exactly the kind of thing worth asking about directly when you register.
A question worth asking your birth space: “If my baby needed intensive care, what would happen to my baby and to me, and where would each of us be?” A good team will answer it plainly.
04
Where this comes from
Gathered from each birth space's own information and the official register of perinatal care levels. Figures are current as best we can tell at the last update, and we check them periodically. If you spot something out of date, please tell us.
Take it with you
When you go to visit
Once you have a shortlist, the next step is to visit. Our birth-space question bank gives you the questions worth asking, ready to print and take along.