This is the true story of a professional expat in Germany. For her privacy, we’ll call her Anna. She, like many of us, moved to Germany trusting its reputation for order and efficiency. She believed she was in the best possible hands when she went to a city hospital to give birth.
What happened next was not a simple case of bad luck. It was a cascade of systemic failures—overlooked symptoms, dismissed concerns, and critical communication breakdowns—that turned the birth of her child into a six-month ordeal that nearly cost her her life. Her experience is a powerful cautionary tale, offering crucial lessons every expat needs to learn before a crisis hits.
