11/10/2026
Please read the invitation letter from the formal president, Ludwig Janus of International Society for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine - ISPPM e.V.
"We find ourselves in a socially and humanly dramatic situation in which 80 per cent of births today are ‘engineered’ through interventions. This represents a complete overestimation of medical and technical capabilities and an equally significant underestimation of the natural potential of women to give birth, and of children to bring themselves into the world with their mother’s help. Today, in regression therapy settings, we can clearly demonstrate that these routine interventions are associated with far-reaching collateral damage, as detailed by the prenatal psychologist William Emerson in his book *Birth Trauma – The Effects of Modern Obstetrics on the Human Psyche*, Mattes, Heidelberg 2020. Wolfgang Hollweg’s book *On the Truth that Sets Us Free*, Mattes, Heidelberg 1995, also provided an initial overview.
The use of oxytocin to induce labour is a prime example of the harmful side of excessive intervention. In this respect, the conference offers psychotherapists and those working in the social sector a very special opportunity to learn about this detrimental aspect of modern obstetrics and to develop an inner awareness of the resulting ‘collateral damage’ in the form of neurotic and psychosomatic symptoms and distortions in the patterns of how life is shaped. The same applies, of course, to midwives and obstetricians as well. This could mark the beginning of the urgently needed collaboration between psychotherapy and obstetrics.
This opportunity for guidance is further enhanced by the fact that, as part of the pre-conference programme on Friday 30 October from 9.30 am to 1.00 pm, a meeting will be held by the working group ‘Prenatal-Based Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (AG-PfPP)’, which has for years been committed to recognising the
impact of prenatal and birth experiences in the psychotherapeutic setting. An overview is provided by the book edited by Marita Klippel-Heidekrüger and myself: ‘Diverse Approaches to Pre-linguistic and Birth Experiences’, Mattes, Heidelberg 2022."
