My girlfriend is pregnant. what are my next steps in Berlin?

First, get your Krankenversicherung sorted. Even without jobs, if you're legally resident you should be able to get public insurance through the family insurance scheme or a minimal plan. That covers all prenatal care, the birth itself, and the Hebamme (midwife) who will do follow-up visits after the baby is born.

You need to find a Hebamme now, not later. In Berlin they book up incredibly fast, sometimes before the first trimester ends. They handle postpartum care, breastfeeding advice, and can even do home visits. You can search on hebammensuche.de and start calling.

Also register the pregnancy with your health insurance as soon as you have a formal Mutterschaftspass from the gynecologist. That opens up your paid prenatal classes (Geburtsvorbereitungskurs) and other benefits. If you're near a big hospital like Charite or Vivantes, check if they offer English-language courses, a lot of expat parents rely on those.

arrow_drop_up 4 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

honestly, the registry office (Standesamt) is worth thinking about early if you're not married. In Berlin, if you're not married, the father has to officially acknowledge paternity (Vaterschaftsanerkennung) before the birth, otherwise you don't get parental rights automatically. You can do it at the Jugendamt or Standesamt together, bring your IDs and residence permits, and it's free. Do it while she's still pregnant, it's way easier.

also, look into Elterngeld now even though you don't have jobs yet. The minimum is 300 Euro a month for up to 14 months if you're both eligible, and it's based on income before birth. Since you have no income right now, you'd get that minimum, but you need to apply within the first three months after birth or you might lose some. The Berlin Elterngeldstelle on Friedrichstraße handles it, they have English info on their site.

and one more thing, Mutterschutz starts six weeks before the due date, which means she can't legally work if she finds a job before then. If you're both on public insurance, prenatal checkups are free but make sure the gyn gives you the Mutterpass, that document is your key to everything else.

arrow_drop_up 1 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

yeah you should look into the Berliner Familienportal, its the official city site for parents and has most of the forms in english too. they list all the financial stuff like Kindergeld and the baby grant (Erstausstattung) which is like a one-time payment for baby gear

arrow_drop_up -1 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.

arrow_drop_up 4 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point

arrow_drop_up 3 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.

arrow_drop_up 1 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply