If serious complications arise during pregnancy or the unborn child is diagnosed with a fatal disease, the period becomes a nightmare for many mothers and their partners. Around 1,600 children in Germany die every year shortly before, during or up to four weeks after birth.
A palliative care doctor criticizes the fact that parents who are expecting a terminally ill child often do not receive optimal support. He calls for significantly more help and support for the affected families.
Braunschweig: Help for affected couples
Pediatrician and palliative care specialist Lars Garten sees a major gap in support for couples expecting a terminally ill child. Professional psychosocial support during pregnancy and subsequent grief support are not financed by health insurance companies, criticized Garten in an interview with the Evangelical Press Service (epd).
Therefore, perinatal centers that specialize in premature babies do not offer such services to a sufficient extent. But they would be important for the couples or women affected. Every year 1,600 children die in Germany shortly before, during or up to four weeks after birth.
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Good advice during pregnancy takes a neutral position, explained the medical director of the palliative team at the Berlin Charité Perinatal Center. Mothers or couples are often faced with the decision to continue or terminate the pregnancy. It is important to explain both options without judgment, but with the respective consequences, emphasized Garten. “We try to remove the time pressure and support couples in making the right decision for them.”
“Many clinics don’t like a high death rate”
His team, which also includes midwives and pastors, supports the parents of seriously ill children during and after birth and after the child’s death. The Charité also accepts couples who want a palliative birth, even if this increases the hospital’s death rate for newborns. “Many clinics don’t like a high death rate because they fear it will look worse to the public.” The statistics do not distinguish between death due to poor medical treatment and death after a palliative birth.
The Charité Perinatal Center cares for up to 40 newborns each year who suffer from a congenital or acquired incurable and life-limiting disease and die within a few days or weeks after birth. Newborns made up the largest subgroup of all childhood and adolescent deaths, Garten said.
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Together with colleagues from psychosocial parental counseling and nursing, he founded the neonatology palliative team at the Charité in 2014, the first in Germany. Together with Kerstin von der Hude, he published a corresponding textbook. The topic is increasingly in demand, said Garten. He is invited to conferences and workshops, which are almost always fully booked. With the collaboration of colleagues, Garten recently developed guidelines for palliative care and grief support in perinatology and neonatology. (epd)
date: 2026-02-09 13:36:00
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