Your step-by-step guide
Pregnancy, birth, and the weeks after in Germany, in English.
First trimester · Weeks 5 to 13
What is happening
A positive test, and a hundred feelings at once: joy and disbelief, and just as often fear or a flatness no one warned you about. Your body is already at work even when nothing shows. The first trimester is mostly invisible and mostly internal, which is part of why it can feel lonely far from family.
Your care
Care begins with one appointment: book in with a gynaecologist between weeks 5 and 8, where the pregnancy is confirmed and you receive your Mutterpass. How the rest of your care is shared is your choice: a midwife (Hebamme) can carry out almost all routine check-ups, with only the scans and certain fine diagnostics staying with the gynaecologist. The first routine ultrasound falls between weeks 9 and 12. Extra first-trimester screening (nuchal translucency, NIPT) sits outside standard covered care.
Decisions to make
Admin & paperwork
Second trimester · Weeks 14 to 27
What is happening
For many this is the kindest stretch: energy returns, nausea often eases, and you begin to show. Somewhere in here you feel the first movements. You tell people, and the pregnancy stops being a secret you carry alone.
Your care
Care settles into a rhythm: routine check-ups (Vorsorge) roughly every four weeks, shared between your gynaecologist and midwife. The detailed anatomy scan falls between weeks 19 and 22, and the gestational diabetes screening (oGTT) around weeks 24 to 28. This is also the season for birth preparation, so secure the antenatal class you want.
Decisions to make
Admin & paperwork
Third trimester · Weeks 28 to 40+
What is happening
The body is unmistakable now, and loud. Sleep grows lighter, and a kind of nesting urgency arrives. Underneath the logistics there is often a tender mix of impatience, nerves, and awe.
Your care
Check-ups quicken: the third ultrasound between weeks 29 and 32, and from week 32 appointments move to every two weeks, with heart-rate monitoring (CTG) as needed. Around weeks 30 to 34 comes the registration appointment (Anmeldegespräch) at your chosen hospital. If you pass your due date, your team will offer extra monitoring rather than rush you.
Decisions to make
Admin & paperwork
Birth and the first days · The week around birth
What is happening
Labour, birth, and the first astonishing hours. It may follow your plan or ask you to let the plan go. In Germany a healthy parent and baby usually stay in hospital one to three days; after a birth house or home birth you are often home within hours. Your midwife's postpartum visits begin almost straight away.
Your care
The midwife leads the birth and doctors step in only if needed. You have the right to a companion and to consent to (or decline) every intervention. Your baby's first check (U1) happens immediately, the second (U2) between days 3 and 10. Your midwife then begins daily home visits through the first ten days.
Admin & paperwork
Fourth trimester · Postpartum, and after
What is happening
The Wochenbettis Germany's name for the first weeks after birth, held as a protected, slow, mostly indoor time: healing, feeding around the clock, and a body that is suddenly yours again and not quite the same. This is precisely the stretch the German system expects you to be cared for, not just the baby.
Your care
Your midwife is the centre of this phase: daily visits for the first ten days, then less often through the first eight weeks, with breastfeeding support (Stillberatung) for months after. Your baby's U3 falls around weeks 4 to 5, and at about six weeks a postnatal check (Nachuntersuchung) closes the formal medical postpartum. From around week six a recovery course (Rückbildungskurs) begins, covered by your insurer.
Decisions to make
Admin & paperwork
The paperwork checklist
Weeks 5 to 8
Weeks 8 to 12
Weeks 12 to 20
Weeks 20 to 28
Weeks 28 to 32
Weeks 30 to 34
Week 36 onwards
Within one week of birth
Within the first weeks postpartum
Seven weeks before parental leave begins
When to call for help
- 112 (Notruf): life-threatening emergencies: heavy bleeding, sudden severe pain, loss of consciousness, no baby movement for an extended time, or anything that genuinely frightens you.
- 116 117 (Ärztlicher Bereitschaftsdienst): out-of-hours medical advice when your practice is closed and it is not a 112-level emergency.
- Your midwife: pregnancy symptoms, postpartum recovery, feeding, and the baby.
- In labour: call the labour ward (Kreißsaal) of your registered hospital directly; the number is in your Mutterpass after registration. For a birth house or home birth, call your midwife.
Trusted resources across Germany
- Ammely · no-cost midwife search, run by the German Midwives' Association
- familienportal.de · official guide to Elterngeld, Kindergeld, and Mutterschutz
- Elterngeld-Digital · the official online application for parental allowance
- Netzwerk der Geburtshäuser · the national network of German birth houses
- Doula-Verbund Deutschland · a German doula association, to find a doula near you
- La Leche Liga · non-commercial breastfeeding support
- Schatten und Licht · support through peripartum depression in Germany
This is informational, not medical advice. Your midwife (Hebamme) and gynaecologist are your primary care; everything here is the orientation that comes before, between, and after their appointments.