Family Health Center Neuhofstrasse

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The FamilienGesundheitsZentrum Neuhofstrasse (FGZN) was founded in 1978 and was a work area of ​​the autonomous Feminist Women's Health Center in Frankfurt am Main (FFGZ) until 1988 . Together, the activists of the new women's movement criticized the male-dominated and conventional medicine-oriented gynecology . In this context, the founders of the FGZN developed alternatives to the prevailing pregnancy and technical birthing practice. With the aim of self-determined obstetrics , they worked closely with midwives , organized outpatient and home births , built a birthing center and developed a new training path for obstetricians .

The Women's Health Center has been working as a family center since 1988: courses, assistance and advice on pregnancy and childbirth, parenting and other health issues are aimed at women, men and families.

History and foundation

A self-help group of pregnant women and mothers from the Eckenheimer Landstrasse women's center founded  the Feminist Women's Health Center in Frankfurt in 1978 together with other protesters from the protest movement against the abortion paragraph 218 . The department of birth preparation and pregnancy counseling initially developed under the umbrella of the autonomous women's health project. In 1984 the FFGZ moved into its own office and group rooms on Hamburger Allee.

In order to further expand the range of childbirth preparation and pregnancy counseling services, the work area moved to larger rooms in Frankfurt's Nordend in 1988 and was initially called Frauengesundheitszentrum Neuhofstrasse. There the FGZN expanded its offers and also included men and families in the counseling work. Additional space was added in Günthersburgallee, and projects were also created in the districts of Fechenheim , Bergen-Enkheim , Riederwald and Bonames . With the expansion of the counseling and course offers in various parts of the city and social rooms, the facilities of the Women's Health Center in Frankfurt's Nordend were renamed Family Health Center Neuhofstrasse (FGZN) under the umbrella of the FrauenGesundheitsZentrum e. V.

The location of the family health center in the rear building at Neuhofstrasse 32 since 1988.

Holistic understanding of pregnancy and childbirth

In the 1970s, the topic of pregnancy and childbirth was discussed in various groups of the new women's movement. First in the USA and then also in West Germany, self-help groups were founded by women and demand was made to reorganize pregnancy and childbirth practice.

The activists of the FFGZ are committed to holistic medicine and a self-determined approach to one's own body. A central theme was the criticism of the mechanization and pathologization of pregnancy and childbirth . While home births supervised by midwives were common practice in Germany until the middle of the 20th century, in the 1960s childbirth became a general health insurance service, so that births, even without any particular risk indication, mainly in hospitals, under mostly male medical care and took place with a high level of use of technology and medication. This birth technology was viewed by women from the new women's movement as incapacitation and alienation from their own body, their own fertility and the physiological birth process.

With reference to the traditional knowledge of wise women, healers and midwives of the Middle Ages, the women wanted to reappropriate the topics of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding : “We wanted for ourselves the right to self-determined obstetrics, obstetrics that follow the natural course largely corresponds to birth. We wanted obstetrics that takes into account the physical, psychological and social aspects of childbirth and recognizes their interdependence. "

The activists in the women's health centers linked their criticism of obstetrics with the general criticism of the social position of women: “Having children has other functions that we should fulfill: we should raise children, especially future housewives and mothers; we should hold together a stable nuclear family and we should do housework without pay (in the family and at work). [...] Family policy aims to enforce these interests and goes hand in hand with population policy. If we want to determine our bodies and our sexuality ourselves, we also turn against being exploited in this way. "

As part of its holistic view of gynecology, the work area called for fundamental changes and developed new forms of birth preparation for pregnant women and fathers-to-be. Based on the definition of the World Health Organization (WHO) , which published recommendations for an appropriate birth technology under the slogan "Birth is not a disease" in 1985, the courses provided parents-to-be with comprehensive information on the physical and psychological processes during pregnancy, during childbirth and the time thereafter with the newborn. The individual needs, fears and wishes of women, fathers and the unborn child were taken into account.

The activists of the FFGZ and later of the FGZN implemented new forms and procedures both for birth preparation and for birth practices: With a view to the clinical birth technology, which was widespread at the time, they enforced the right of women to give birth to their children in a way and according to them to experience in a place of their own choosing, first and foremost. They called for extensive changes in the prevailing birth practice, such as low-intervention clinical obstetrics, reduction of painkillers during childbirth and more diverse birth methods such as water births or upright birthing positions . Fathers were integrated into their antenatal classes and nursing mothers were supported. Self-help and mothers groups and collaborations with midwives emerged, who accompanied outpatient and home births and advised women who had recently given birth at home.

These impulses had a lasting impact on clinical birthing practice and changed the standards in hospitals. Rooming-in , family rooms and water births are now possible in most maternity wards according to the wishes of women and expectant parents.

The birth preparation division of the FFGZ networked nationwide and, together with the Society for Birth Preparation (GfG) founded in 1980, developed a certified training program for pedagogues, psychologists and midwives, which all of the FFGZ course leaders completed.

Offers of the FFGZ and the FGZ Neuhofstraße (selection)

Location of the Feminist Women's Health Center at Hamburger Allee 45. The birth preparers and pregnancy counselors were part of the FFGZ team from 1984 to 1988.

From 1978 to 1988, the Pregnancy and Childbirth department at the FFGZ offered advice for pregnant women as well as courses on birth preparation, regression and baby massage.

From 1988 the work area accompanying women around childbirth in the FGZN was continuously expanded, for example through advisory services for involuntary childlessness and unwanted pregnancy. Fathers were included in the deliberations from the start.

Entrance to the Family Health Center FGZN in the rear building at Günthersburgallee 14H, since the 1990s.

Since the reform of abortion law in 1994, the association has been a recognized 218 counseling center.

Advice and assistance with breastfeeding in infant care and baby massage have been included in the program of FGZN, also courses for regression and redefinition after birth, or for parents with so-called cry of children .

In 1993 the employees of the FGZN and a group of midwives opened a birth center in Frankfurt- Ginnheim (today Böttgertraße 22).

In 1995 the counseling program was expanded to include general areas of life and transitional situations such as women going through menopause and traumatic stress experiences.

From 1994, the FGZN also included socially disadvantaged parents, such as women and men with a migration history, in outreach, district-related counseling work. The model project Kinder- und Familienzentrum (KiFaZ) Fechenheim , opened in 2007, was created in cooperation between the FGZN and the social pedagogical association for family-friendly education. V . in Frankfurt am Main. In 2016, the project received the mixed-up prize from the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) in the long-running category .

From 2008 to 2013, the Family Health Center was the only Hessian model location involved in the practical project Value Education in Families of the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ). In this context, the FGZN offered a mother-child free time on the topic.

In 2015, the FGZN supported pregnant women and mothers in the refugee accommodation in Frankfurt-Bonames.

The Family Health Center, which emerged from the new women's movement and the Feminist Women's Health Center, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2019.

Cooperation between different specialist groups

The group of birth preparers worked as a specialist team from 1978 to 1988 in the Frankfurt FFGZ together with seven other specialist groups under one roof. The employees were sociologists, doctors, pedagogues, social workers, lawyers, social pedagogues, psychologists, psychoanalysts and students with different qualifications. This institutional structure in specialist groups was unique in the women's health movement in Germany.

With instruments such as collegial advice, intervision and supervision , the quality of the work of the advisors in the FFGZ was ensured, controlled and further developed.

Budget and economic development

In contrast to other offers, contributions could be levied for the birth preparation courses, as these were reimbursed by health insurance companies as part of the so-called pregnancy gymnastics. With this option, consultants and course instructors could receive fees for their services. All other work for the institution was done on a voluntary basis until 1985.

From 1985 to 1987 the FFGZ received a project grant of 150,000 DM from the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs as part of the first red-green coalition at state level. These funds were used to pay for courses and individual counseling in the area of ​​birth preparation, including topics such as childbirth underwater, men preparing for and giving birth, advanced training for midwifery students, amniocentesis and AIDS in obstetrics.

From 1989 to 1996 both women's health centers (FFGZ and FamilienGesundheitsZentrum Neuhofstrasse) received funding from the state of Hesse and the women's department of the city of Frankfurt .

The contributions for courses and counseling offers of the FGZN were mostly recognized as health insurance benefits until 2015. Since then, midwives have been able to bill for services in childbirth preparation as a freelance work focus, but the offers of the Family Health Center are often no longer financed by statutory health insurances.

Female founders and employees

The founders, managers and employees include Thea Vogel and Marion Dominiak-Keller, Brigitte Peterka (management), Iris Fiedler, Jacobe de La Tour and Doris Niebergall.

Awards

In 2010, the co-founder, board member, consultant and course leader of the FGZN Thea Vogel was awarded the honor plaque of the city of Frankfurt am Main for her longstanding work in family and gender policy and the further development of women's health . Vogel has been a concept developer and trainer at the Society for Birth Preparation, Family Education and Women's Health Bundesverband e. V. (GfG).

In 2016, Gabriele Kemmler, birth preparer and advisor to the FGZN, received the 14th Frankfurt Olympe-de-Gouges Prize from the Working Group of Social Democratic Women (ASF) Hessen-Süd and Frankfurt am Main for her outstanding work over many years in the care of women after the loss of a child and after traumatic birth experiences.

Publications

literature

  • Sibylla Flügge: Midwives and healing women - law and legal reality in the 15th and 16th centuries , Stroemfeld Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Basel 1998, ISBN 978-3-8610-9123-3 .
  • Christiane Northrup: women bodies women wisdom. Live consciously - heal holistically . Verlag Zabert Sandmann, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-924678-69-3 .
  • The Boston Women's Health Book Collective: Our Bodies, Our Lives. A handbook by women for women . O ur Bodies, Our Selves (German first edition) Translated from the American and edited by women from Berlin, Heidelberg, Munich, Wiesbaden, Vienna. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1980.
  • Barbara Sichtermann: Careful child. A job description for mothers, fathers and others . Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, Frankfurt am Main 1982. ISBN 978-3-8031-2209-4 new edition from 1992)
  • Barbara Sichtermann: Living with a Newborn Baby. A book about the first half year . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 978-3-596-23308-3 .
  • Witch whispers. women resort to self-help 2 . Revised and expanded by Christiane Ewert, Gaby Karsten, Dagmar Schultz. Frauenselbstverlag West-Berlin, Presse-Druck Augsburg 1981 (first edition 1978).
  • Eva-Maria Stark: to be born and give birth. A pamphlet for reshaping pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood . Verlag Frauenoffensive, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-88104-010-2 .

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Sibylla Flügge: Jubilee - 40 years of FGZ - address on the 40th anniversary of the Family Health Center (FGZN). In: www.fgzn.de. FamilienGesundheitsZentrum, September 27, 2019, accessed July 31, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Concept of birth preparation and pregnancy counseling in the women's health center . In: Feminist Women Health Center (ed.): 10 Years Feminist Women Health Center Frankfurt 1978–1988: Documentation . Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 71-79 .
  3. ^ Revised and expanded by Christiane Ewert, Gaby Karsten, Dagmar Schultz: Hexengeflüster. women resort to self-help 2 . Frauenselbstverlag / Presse-Druck, West Berlin / Augsburg 1981, p. 11 (first edition: 1978).
  4. ↑ World Health Organization (ed.): Birth is not a disease: Excerpt from the recommendations of the World Health Organization . Copenhagen April 1985.
  5. ↑ Caroline Ottlik: Health Promotion in Obstetrics. About the connection between breastfeeding promotion, bonding and family health . Diplomica Verlag, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8428-9721-2 , p. 28 .
  6. ↑ Birth can be a miracle. Thea Vogel in conversation with Doris Kleinau-Metzler . In: a tempo - The life magazine of the publishers Free Spiritual Life & Urachhaus . Stuttgart April 2013 ( a-tempo.de ).
  7. ↑ Margherita Zander, Luise Hartwig, Irma Jansen (eds.): Gender incidental? Topicality of a gender perspective in social work . Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 978-3-531-90331-6 , p. 317 .
  8. ↑ Sibylla Flügge in her speech on the 40th anniversary of the Family Health Center (FGZN) on September 27, 2019: "Five years later the successes were already more pronounced. I quote from the Frankfurter Rundschau, which reported on the successes of the Feminist Women's Health Center in 1985:" Hospitals have Already reacted to it in at least one respect. Childbirth has become a matter for mother and father, there is a wide choice between inpatient and outpatient births. Treatment methods are differentiated and tailored to the needs of women. Labor is no longer according to the duty and leisure schedule of the staff. Parents make demands. The women's health center encourages them. "" Source: https://www.fgzn.de/jubilaeum
  9. ↑ Source unless otherwise stated: Sibylla Flügge: Address for the 40th anniversary of the Family Health Center (FGZN) on September 2 , 2019, https://www.fgzn.de/jubilaeum
  10. ↑ a b c Awards from the Family Health Center. In: www.fgzn.de. Family Health Center, accessed July 31, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Latest news: Competition for exemplary youth education - MIXED UP 2016: projects awarded. Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth, November 17, 2016, accessed on July 31, 2020 .
  12. ↑ German Red Cross e. V., project team building values ​​in families - Annegret Erbes / Charlotte Giese / Heribert Rolli (eds.): Values ​​and building values ​​in families, educational institutions, cooperations. Contributions from theory and practice . Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-00-042815-9 ( bmfsfj.de [PDF]).
  13. ^ The project " Value education in families", model location Hessen. In: www.fgzn.de. FamilienGesundheitsZentrum, accessed on July 31, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Alex Westhoff: What a family carries. In: faz.net. Retrieved June 24, 2009 .
  15. ↑ Claudia Gutmann, Beate Herzog: Feminist women's health work from the beginning until today. Organizational structures and conception . In: Germanus Hungeling, Monika Knoche (ed.): Social health policy. Locations and bases of a green health policy . Mabuse Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 978-3-929106-57-2 , p. 132 .
  16. ^ Helga Kraus, Karin Kraus: The cooperation in the feminist women's health center . In: Feminist Frauengesundheitszentrum (ed.): 10 years of Feminist Frauengesundheitszentrum Frankfurt 1978–1988: Documentation . Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 7 .
  17. ↑ C. Gutmann et al. (Red.): Documentation on the 20th anniversary of the FFGZ, Feminist Women's Health Center e. V., 1978-1998 . Ed .: Feminist Women's Health Center. Frankfurt am Main 1998, p. 8 .
  18. ↑ Beate Herzog: Funded by the country . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . No. 293 , December 17, 1994, pp. 51 .
  19. ↑ Tomatoes in front of the bib. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. April 30, 2008, accessed July 31, 2020 .
  20. ^ Friederike Tinnappel: For young families. In: Frankfjurter Rundschau. September 27, 2019, accessed July 31, 2020 .
  21. ↑ The FGZ team. In: www.fgzn.de. Family Health Center, accessed July 31, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Stefanie Boese-Bellach, Thea Vogel: Family support from the beginning ... Basics and suggestions for birth preparation, re-education and FABEL® courses . Ed .: GfG - Society for Birth Preparation - Family Education and Women's Health - Bundesverband e. V. Berlin, p. 4 ( sexualaufklaerung.de [PDF]).