Barbara Künzer-Riebel

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Barbara Künzer-Riebel (born September 21, 1954 in Göttingen ) is a German author and founder of the REGENBOGEN initiative (now the Rainbow Initiative "Glücklose Pregnancy" eV), family educator, couples therapist and grief counselor. It is considered a pioneer and champion of today's improved care of mothers and fathers, their baby as miscarriage or stillbirth or shortly after birth died.

Act

Barbara Künzer-Riebel was best known for her book “Just a touch of life - parents report on the death of their baby and the time of their mourning”, published in 1988 by Ernst-Kaufmann-Verlag , an accompanying book for affected parents and specialist staff, who is co-editor Theologian Gottfried Lutz. The book was published in the 6th edition in 2011.

The book, for which she is the editor and author, is regarded as the first German-language book on the subject of "early child loss" in Germany and became part of the teaching materials for nursing professions and midwifery training.

She is also co-author of “The Last Way”, (Ed. Oskar Mittag), as well as numerous articles in magazines and newspapers. In 1985 she designed and published the “Rainbow Brochure for Orphaned Parents”, a regularly revised guide for affected mothers and fathers, which was later distributed by the RAINBOGEN “Happiness Pregnancy” initiative with a current circulation of around 37,000. In addition, up to the year 2000, she worked on all of the publications of the REGENBOGEN “Glücklose Pregnancy” e. V.

Under her leadership and that of her husband, Hermann Riebel, the petition was submitted on May 20, 1988 to improve the civil status law or the federal civil status ordinance (PStG / PStVO), according to which miscarriages and stillborns should be entered by name in the family register . At the same time, it raised the demand for a lowering of the then valid 1000-gram limit, which defined the concept of the corpse and thus stillbirth.

At the same time, a petition was sent to the state of Baden-Württemberg with the proviso that the funeral law for dead and miscarriages should be changed so that they can be buried in the cemeteries. The definition of “stillbirth” should also be adapted to the standards of the WHO from 1988, according to which miscarriages were stillborn children below the 24th week of pregnancy or 500 grams. This state petition was followed by more identical ones in the other West German (and later East German) federal states. Another demand contained in this petition was the abolition of the so-called custody law of clinics , a customary law that enabled clinics to freely decide whether or not to keep miscarriages below the weight limits applicable at the time, regardless of the parents' wish to have their child buried .

Another submission dated January 23, 1996 to enable the notarization of a stillborn child in the birth register was approved in 1998.

Künzer-Riebel was involved in various ethics councils such as EKD, KKVD (Catholic Hospital Association of Germany), DBK ( German Bishops' Conference ) in order to achieve a rethink, especially in the churches, in relation to miscarriages and stillborns.

Their recommendations led to lasting changes in obstetrics on the subject of "death in the delivery room"; For example, she called for mothers and fathers to have contact with their dying or dead child in order to give them the opportunity to cope with grief. This resulted u. a. the idea of ​​the "Moses basket" or the establishment of special burial fields in German cemeteries. The problems of affected parents were noted nationwide and changes began, a nationwide network of active people emerged.

In the middle of 1983 Künzer-Riebel founded the first self-help group for “early orphaned parents” in Germany, supported by another affected mother, Regine Schreier. Since 1985 she has been leading training events and workshops.

To this day, she looks after parents on a voluntary basis in the regional maternity clinics after the death of their baby, organizes the funeral on request and continues to accompany the parents in discussions after the funeral. The motivation for her work was the death of her own child in 1983 and the experiences made at the time in the maternity and children's clinic as well as in dealing with people who did not share this experience.

Barbara Künzer-Riebel works in her own practice in the Stuttgart area . She is married and has one deceased and one living child.

Inputs

  • To the German Bundestag from May 20, 1988 Pet 1-11-06-211-14299 on the amendment of the Civil Status Act, which makes it possible to enter stillbirths and miscarriages with first and last names in the civil status registers ("Change in the definition of miscarriage") - Rejection by the German Bundestag on October 4, 1988
  • State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg of May 20, 1988 Petition 10/00033 to change the law of burial and redefinition of the term corpse (general law of burial for stillborn babies weighing more than 500 grams, legal regulation on the question of custody in hospitals and monitoring of hospitals with regard to reporting miscarriages or stillbirths ). Rejection February 7, 1994 (Landtag printed paper 11/3321)
  • Renewed submission of January 23, 1996 Pet 1-13-06-210-025201 to enable the entry of a stillborn child (notarization of a stillborn child in the birth register) was decided positively on March 23, 1998 (effective July 1, 1998 with retrospective addendum within from 5 years); Printed matter 13/4898

Honors

In 1984 she was awarded the honorary medal by the then Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany , Helmut Kohl , for her voluntary social commitment to affected parents as part of the campaign “Talking is silver. Silence is gold ”.

Publications

  • Künzer-Riebel, Barbara and Lutz, Gottfried: Just a touch of life - parents report on the death of their baby and the time of their mourning - Kaufmann-Verlag, Edition: 6th A. (2011), ISBN 978-3-7806-0951 -9 ; also published by Fischer TB-Verlag "Ratgeber" in 1991
  • Künzer-Riebel, Barbara: Unter Glas , in: Mittag, Oskar (Ed.): “The Last Way - How We Deal With Death” Experiences from relatives, friends and helpers. With contributions on hospice work, euthanasia and organ donation. Saying goodbye: Funeral and burial, Stuttgart: Georg Thieme 1997, pp. 61–75, ISBN 978-3-89373-391-0
  • Information brochures (total) of the REGENBOGEN initiative 1985–2000

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http: //www.lebenshaben.de/index.php? Page = BKR
  2. ↑ http://www.worldcat.org/title/regenbogen-broschure-fur-verwaiste-eltern-die-ihr-kind-durch-fehl-oder-totgeburt-und-kurz-nach-der-entbaltung-verloren-haben / oclc / 313683435
  3. ↑ a b http://www.initiative-regenbogen.de/
  4. ↑ Resolution recommendation of the Petitions Committee (2nd committee). Collective overview 370 on petitions. German Bundestag, June 24, 1998, accessed November 2, 2014 .
  5. ↑ State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg of May 20, 1988 Petition 10/00033 to change the funeral law and redefinition of the term corpse (general funeral law for stillborn babies weighing 500 grams or more, legal regulation on the custody issue of hospitals and monitoring of hospitals with regard to reporting missing or Stillbirths). Rejection February 7, 1994 (Landtag printed paper 11/3321)
  6. ↑ http://dipbt.bundestag.de/doc/btd/13/094/1309416.asc
  7. ↑ http://www.unter-anderen-umstaenden-schwanger.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Projekte/uaus/pdf/Literaturliste.pdf
  8. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from August 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (pp. 37–42)
  9. ↑ A breath of life ( Memento from March 20, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )
personal data
SURNAME Künzer-Riebel, Barbara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author and founder of the REGENBOGEN initiative
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Goettingen