SIGEL

Safe Childbirth in Vulnerable Circumstances

01/10/2025 to 30/09/2027

The aim of the SIGEL discourse project is to initiate the urgently needed discourse on the care of vulnerable pregnant women in Germany. To this end, key ethical, social, and legal issues arising in connection with the care and support of pregnant women from vulnerable groups are to be addressed. At the interfaces of society, science, and practice, in particular through the direct participation of affected pregnant women and actors in midwifery science and practice, discussions will be held both publicly and within the professional community on how the specific risks and needs of vulnerable groups can be better addressed and how their care can be optimized. A prerequisite for this is the appropriate categorization of individuals as members of a vulnerable group. This marking of difference
and attribution of vulnerability is a socially complex process that also entails certain risks and must therefore be critically reflected upon. The differentiation of people is often associated with assessments of belonging and stereotypical behavioral expectations.
It therefore seems necessary to accompany the aim of making members of vulnerable groups and their problems visible in the context of obstetrics with additional measures for reflection. This is to ensure that both the discourse on the special needs of women from vulnerable groups and the practical improvement of their care during childbirth are not automatically associated with derogatory attributions. The aim is to ensure that both the discourse on the special needs of women from vulnerable groups and the practical improvement of their care during childbirth are not automatically associated with derogatory attributions.