Kirchsee, parking lot or motorway: The most unusual birthplaces in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen

Again and again, children are born under unusual circumstances.

In the rarest of cases this is planned - but sometimes it is.

midwives report.

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen

- Not every child is born in the delivery room - this is also evident in the district again and again.

A few weeks ago, one of the most unusual birthplaces was the banks of the Kirchsee near Sachsenkam.

Crash birth at Kirchsee: midwife came too late

"It was absolutely not planned that way, it was a classic fall birth," reports midwife Kathleen Herzog from Lenggries.

The family didn't have a chance to go home.

And when the midwife arrived on site, everything had already happened.

"The child was there within half an hour." Luckily everything went well, everyone is fine.

Again and again, however, one hears that mothers expressly wish to give birth to their child in nature.

That is extremely rare, says midwife Nadia Tretter from Lenggries.

But she accompanied two such women postnatal.

You would have opted for a solo birth – i.e. without the help of a midwife.

Rather exotic locations are often selected for this, “by the creek or by the sea in Bali, for example,” says Tretter.

Midwives take a critical look at unassisted births

"It's definitely not something for every woman," says the Lenggrieserin.

As a rule, these are women who are having their second, third or fourth child and who previously did not find the conventional birth process in a clinic positive.

When making this decision, the "desire for self-determination" is often in the foreground or for a connection between one's own body and nature.

As a midwife, she is “rather critical” of single births, says Nadia Tretter.

“Because there can be situations that the woman giving birth cannot assess herself.” In any case, it makes sense for someone with a specialist background to be present at the birth.

"But that's my medical point of view - and these women just don't have that." She doesn't want to demonize anyone, says Tretter.

“Having a child all by yourself is incredibly stressful”

Other midwives put it more clearly: "You can go for a walk in the forest, but you shouldn't give birth there," says midwife Doris Wallé from Tölz.

Only once, many years ago, did she hear of an unassisted birth that took place in Sri Lanka.

Since then, however, she has not known anyone who would have chosen this path.

Martina Winkler, head of the attending midwives at the Wolfratshausen branch of the Starnberg Clinic, thinks “nothing at all” about single births.

“Having a child all by yourself is incredibly stressful,” she is convinced.

A woman needs a safe space to give birth.

It is not absolutely necessary for the midwife to intervene actively.

"But we support and accompany the women," she clarifies.

"Thank God" she only knows women in the district who opt for the "usual range" of births.

New bathtub for births in Wolfratshausen

And that in itself is broad.

“We offer everything here: women can lie down, move, give birth while standing or in the bath – we have just bought a new bath for this.

We support everything the woman desires.”

An isolated special request is, for example, “hypnobirthing”, a method that promises women a birth that is as painless as possible thanks to self-hypnosis.

Winkler himself sees this trend as "ambivalent" and notes that it is "very expensive".

Desire for home births has increased sharply

For Winkler, on the other hand, home birth is one of the more common forms.

According to Kathleen Herzog, this variant is in high demand.

This has recently increased significantly due to the corona requirements in the clinics.

According to Herzog, however, he is the only midwife in the district who offers to accompany home births.

She looked after 35 of them last year.

This year her schedule is full until November - and after that she doesn't want to continue working as a midwife because she's reaching her limits in terms of strength.

"Anyone who has given birth at home will not voluntarily go back to the clinic the next time," Herzog is convinced.

And if a woman asked her to accompany a birth in nature, she was "open to everything," says the Lenggrieserin.

On the other hand, it is usually "traumatizing" for the mothers when they involuntarily give birth to their child in an unusual place - namely when it is too fast to reach the nearest clinic.

According to Herzog, a child was only recently born on the Autobahn – the Wolfratshausen exit had to be closed for this.

"My heart bleeds," says Herzog.

Births in the car have become more frequent since Tölz obstetrics and the way to the nearest obstetrics clinic for mothers from the southern district has become far.

Parking lot birth in Wolfratshausen

Martina Winkler also reports that there was a "parking lot birth" in Wolfratshausen some time ago.

"And we've also had women who actually wanted to go to Starnberg or Munich, but turned to us on the way," adds the midwife.

By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Bad Tölz newsletter.