Before baby comes

Your care, your appointments, and the paperwork, trimester by trimester.

A whole pregnancy, in the order it comes up: the check-ups and scans to expect, the choices that want thinking about before they are asked of you, and the forms that go alongside. Start at the trimester you are in and work forward. The appointments are the schedule your midwife or gynaecologist keeps with you; everything else can happen whenever it suits you, and most of it is a phone call or a form.

First trimester: setting up your care

Confirm the pregnancy with a gynaecologist, usually between weeks 5 and 8, and come away with your Mutterpass. A midwife can confirm it too, if you already have one.

Decide who holds your routine care: a midwife, a gynaecologist, or the two of them sharing it. A midwife can carry out almost all the check-ups; the scans and fine diagnostics stay with the gynaecologist.

Find a midwife (Hebamme). They book up fast, often within weeks of a positive test, and you contact them directly without a referral.

Ask whether that midwife also does postpartum home visits (Nachsorge). If not, look for a second midwife who does.

If you are privately insured, call your insurer to check what your cover includes.

First trimester: what your care looks like

Read through the routine check-ups, scans, and fine diagnostics week by week, so you know what is coming and what is optional: birthandmother.com/guides/step-by-step

Check-ups roughly every four weeks, each one recorded in your Mutterpass.

First routine scan, weeks 9 to 12, alongside blood tests and infection screening.

The first-trimester screening window, weeks 12 to 14: the nuchal scan, and NIPT, the blood test that looks for trisomy 21, 18 and 13. Both are optional. The nuchal scan is usually paid privately, and NIPT is covered only in particular circumstances, so ask what applies to you.

Second trimester: checks and screening

Check-ups continue every four weeks.

The detailed anatomy scan, weeks 19 to 22: the second of the three routine scans, and the long one.

Glucose screening (oGTT), weeks 24 to 28.

Read up on individual health services (IGeL-Leistungen), the extras offered beyond covered care: additional ultrasounds, toxoplasmosis and CMV screening, group B streptococcus (GBS) testing, Doppler scans. Ask the price, and whether your insurer covers it, before you agree to any of them: birthandmother.com/guides/the-german-maternity-system

If fine diagnostics are offered, ask what the scan can and cannot tell you, and take the time you need with the decision.

Second trimester: where, and who

Look at the birth places near you: a hospital, a birth house (Geburtshaus), or home with a midwife. The best one is whichever fits you, your family, and your wishes for this birth.

Book a tour or an information evening (Infoabend) at the ones you are considering, and ask whether English-speaking midwives are on the team.

Choose a paediatrician (Kinderarzt) for your baby's first check-ups.

Second trimester: the first forms

Tell your employer in writing, usually somewhere between weeks 12 and 20, with your due date. The day-to-day maternity protections start once they know.

Book your antenatal class (Geburtsvorbereitungskurs). The birthing parent's place is usually covered, and popular classes fill months ahead.

If you are not married: arrange the Vaterschaftsanerkennung and Sorgeerklärung at the Jugendamt. It can be done any time before the birth.

Read up on Elterngeld and Kindergeld at familienportal.de, so the forms are familiar when they matter.

Third trimester: checks and registering

Check-ups move to every two weeks, and monitoring (CTG) may begin.

Third routine scan, weeks 29 to 32.

Register at your hospital (Anmeldegespräch), around weeks 30 to 34. This is the formal pre-birth appointment where they take your details and talk through your preferences.

Write your birth preferences (Geburtsplan), even just a page: birthandmother.com/guides/birth-plan

Confirm your postpartum midwife, and what their first visits will look like.

Third trimester: work and money

Send your due-date certificate to your insurer to claim maternity pay (Mutterschaftsgeld).

Register parental leave (Elternzeit) with your employer in writing, at least seven weeks before it starts. It is binding for the first two years.

Maternity protection leave (Mutterschutz) begins six weeks before your due date. You may keep working through those weeks if you want to, and change your mind at any point.

The last few weeks, from around week 36

Pack your hospital bag.

Fit the car seat, or plan how your baby will come home.

Fill the freezer, and arrange who can help in the first weeks (Wochenbett).

Save the key numbers: your birth place, your midwife, a taxi.

Full term is week 37. Past your due date, extra monitoring is usual, and what happens next is for you to decide with your care team.

birthandmother.comSeptember 2026