The midwife

Bad Salzungen is a small town in Thuringia with a population of 16,000 – quite a few of whom were delivered into this world by midwife Doris Behrends. Now 59, she's been working at the local hospital since 1974, and can honestly say that every single day she's gone to work has been special – a claim few can make. But delivering babies is not the sort of job that gets dull.

When her shift in the clinic is over, she pays house visits to patients as well as giving pre-natal and post-natal courses in a room in her house which she and her craftsman husband converted into a studio a few years ago. Twice a year, Doris takes courses herself to augment her skills, from aromatherapy and homeopathy to acupuncture.

Doris Behrends says she loves her job, and that's what allows her to work so tirelessly.

"I can see that the women I work with need my support and are grateful for it," she explains. "That's why I can put up with working days that can be up to twelve hours long."

Family comes first

Even so, she says she makes sure she always has enough time for her family. Fortunately, all her children still live in Bad Salzungen, even though unemployment is increasingly leading to an exodus of young people.

"My children mean an awful lot to me and I like having them near me," says Doris. "We see each other every single day and whenever we can, we have breakfast together, or we meet for coffee or supper."

Knowing that she can always rely on her family has given her the strength to weather the bad times and venture into the unknown.

The fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago could have spelled the end of her career – the economic insecurity of the post-reunification years left many East Germans reluctant to have children, and the birth-rate fell dramatically

Profession and passion

But it wasn't long before Doris Behrends was busier than ever. Sweeping social change in Germany brought with it innovations even in the labor ward.

"Suddenly it became standard practice to have men in the delivery room, and alternatives to giving birth on a bed were introduced, like water births," she remembers. "We had to relearn our job. But we midwives were very receptive to all the new input and we attended all sorts of courses."

The transformation which Germany was undergoing was mirrored in the midwife's private life: She got married again – to a man from the former West Germany – and had her fourth child, Franziska. She always wanted to have five children, and even though she didn't quite reach that goal, she's more than happy with her five grandchildren. "I wouldn't mind another five," she says.

She never tires of delivering babies. "Thirty years ago I calculated that I'd helped bring about a thousand babies into the world, and then I gave up counting," she says. Despite her years of experience she loves her work as much as ever. "It's not even work," she says. "It's an extraordinary experience. Each time you see a newborn and see that it's healthy and it opens its eyes, reaches out its hands and starts feeling for its mother, it's a miracle."

Doris Behrends might be a tough cookie, but in her line of work, she's allowed to shed a few tears now and then.

Author: Eugen Theise (jp)
Editor: Rina Goldenberg