The non-profit organization Selbstbestimmte Geburt und Familie e.V. is committed to preparing parents for birth and life with their child. It also supports parents before and after miscarriages and stillbirths.
In the “Familienzelt” you will find independent information, personal advice on questions and problems during pregnancy and after the birth as well as groups and courses on becoming a parent and the baby period.
We work in an interdisciplinary team that specializes in the “becoming and being parents” phase of life. Four female employees, who are primarily available for counselling and group work, are employed by the association: a psychological psychotherapist, a psychologist (BA) with additional counselling qualifications, a social worker, and a couple and sex counsellor with a Master’s degree in Social Work.
Other groups and courses are run by freelance staff. These include, for example, specialists for PEKiP courses and for Emmi Pikler’s PlaySpace courses.
Our knowledge is not just theoretical; almost all of our employees have children of their own or have adopted a child.
The Association
Our non-profit association Selbstbestimmte Geburt und Familie e.V. is denominationally and politically independent. We are open to all gender identities and sexual orientations, as well as all family and life models.
The purpose of the association is comprehensive preparation for birth and life with child(ren), support for women and families during pregnancy and after birth, and the promotion of out-of-hospital midwifery services. We would be happy to send you the association’s statutes.
The association, then called Geburtshaus für eine selbstbestimmte Geburt (Birthing Center for Self-Determined Birth), was founded in 1982 by committed women who advocated for the right to self-determination in birth and wanted to create women-friendly alternatives to clinical birth medicine. In 1983, with support from the State of Berlin, our counseling center was opened with an innovative concept for pregnant women and parents after the birth of a child. In 1986, the association founded the first birthing center in Germany, from which today’s Geburtshaus Charlottenburg emerged. This was followed by research projects within the framework of Berlin women’s research on birthing positions and the care of premature labor. Since 2002, the association’s counseling center has been located in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg. In 2008, we named our counseling center “Familienzelt”.
Membership
New members are very welcome in our association.
Our annual membership fee of €30.00 is tax-deductible. You can find the membership application here.
Would you like to donate to our association?
For the transfer of the annual membership fee, you can find our bank details here. Please use the purpose: “Membership fee + your name”. For all other donations, you can also make a regular transfer or simply use our donation button. Here, the purpose “Donation for the association Selbstbestimmte Geburt und Familie” is sufficient.
Selbstbestimmte Geburt und Familie e.V.
SozialBank
IBAN: DE74 3702 0500 0003 1187 08
BIC: BFSWDE33XXX
Would you like to find out about data protection in the context of online donations (donation button)? You can find this information in the last section of our privacy policy on our website.
A donation supports the work of our association.
We appreciate any amount you donate to our association Selbstbestimmte Geburt und Familie e.V.! You can claim your donation as a tax deduction.
Philosophy
Pregnancy, birth, and life with a newborn is a bio-psycho-social process of great importance for all involved. We want to support parents in shaping this phase of life in a way that meets their needs and wishes, as well as the needs of their child/children. Our role is to activate resources, provide independent information, create opportunities for contact with other (expectant) parents, strengthen the relational capacity of family members, and be a point of contact for problems and crises.
Our counseling center “Familienzelt” is denominationally and politically independent.
We welcome all people – regardless of origin, sexual orientation/identity, denomination, and experiences – and meet visitors with openness and appreciation. Based on the self-competence of those seeking advice, we empower them in their own decision-making and agency.
Quality
All employees are professionally qualified and, in addition to their vocational training, have additional training, further education, or advanced training in the therapeutic, pedagogical, or counseling fields. We continuously educate ourselves in the context of the peripartum period. Participation in supervisions and intervisions ensures the quality of the consultations and allows for reflection on one’s own counseling attitude and approach.
We strive for family-friendly conditions. When scheduling appointments, we try to accommodate individual needs. We also orient ourselves as much as possible to the wishes of the participants when setting up additional groups and courses.
Cooperations
The association is a member of various associations, committees, and working groups. Specifically, these are:
Feminist Network for Health Berlin
Women’s Expert Group – Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband Berlin e. V.
Working Group Child and Family – Gesundheit Berlin-Brandenburg e. V.
Berlin Supply Network Psychosomatic Gynecology and Obstetrics
Working Group Sexual Counseling (Profamilia Berlin)