Speaking the language of the 'Hebamme'

Hallo nochmal aus Deutschland! Hello again from Germany...

We've been benefiting from classes at our local hospital, Krankenhaus Friedrichshain. These sessions are taught by a Hebamme, or midwife, who is excellent at explaining everything one needs to know regarding preparing for a birth, but it really helps to be familiar with the German language. More on that below. Here's the pretty building where we take our classes:

When moving to Germany while pregnant, one can expect to learn a full set of new terms necessary for communicating about prenatal and postnatal medicine. This is crucial for having meaningful conversations with a doctor, nurse, midwife, other new mothers, or just people in general.

I thought I'd share some of the new vocabulary I'm learning with you, my lovely readers!

This could be entertaining because German is great fun to pronounce... In some cases, the words are quite close to English. The logical phonetics make the words possible to say, despite their length or compound form. Give it a try! :)

Below are some basics, though I've replaced the umlaut with appropriate letters as I don't yet have a German keyboard:

Mutterpass: Mother's Passport (This brilliant little plastic-bound folder holds all of one's prenatal documents once pregnancy is confirmed. It's essential to carry at all times as it has one's blood type, immunization records, updated status, etc.)
Schwangerschaft: Pregnancy
Krankenhaus: Hospital
Kreissaal: Delivery Area
Hebamme: Midwife (A very important person! We will often interact with the midwife, who works with us before and after the birth, but a doctor and midwife make up the team that checks your status upon admittance. After that the midwife guides the patient with the birth, and the doctor is only on-call as needed, or for any potential complications.)
Artz: Doctor (We have a great doctor for pre/post natal care with much hospital experience, but that is not the same person as the doctors who work strictly in the hospital.)
Gebaermutter: Uterus/Womb (Literally 'birthing mother')
Plazenta: Placenta
Ultraschall: Ultrasound
Herztoene: Heart Beat
Muttermund: Cervix (Literally 'mother's mouth')
Naebelschnur: Umbilical cord (I love saying that one. Sounds like a deep sea creature.)
Dammschnitt: Episiotomy
Geburt: Birth
Naturliche Geburt: Natural Child Birth
Kaiserschnitt: C-section
Nachgeburt: Afterbirth
Stillen: Nursing

And that's just a sampler! There are of course new terms once baby is here, but more on that later:

Wickeltisch: Changing Table
Kinderwagen: Baby Carriage
Windeln: Diapers
Babyschale: Baby Carrier

Here's the view when approaching the delivery wing of the hospital. It's peaceful and green and surrounded by a local park, Friedrichshain. (Hence the name of our whole hood: 'Garden of Friedrich', the emperor of Prussia.)

So far things are going well, thankfully. Now 8 more weeks to go!

Danke fur deinen Besuch / thanks for visiting. And happy World Cup!  (Nope, that's not our car :)