New maternity protection regulations: Support for miscarriages from June!

New maternity protection regulations: Support for miscarriages from June!

From June 1, 2025, a decisive innovation in German maternity protection law comes into force. Women who suffer a miscarriage after the 13th week of pregnancy now have access to staggered maternity leave. So far, a claim for maternity protection was only given from the 24th week of pregnancy, which meant that many women who lost a child very early in pregnancy could not take legal protection. This was made clear, among other things, by the fate of Amelie Laura Trapp from Potsdam, who lost twins in the 23rd week of pregnancy and lost all entitlement to maternity protection after birth, since her children died before the 24th week. Her experience shows how urgently a reform was needed. She expressed the desire for an automated process in order not to have to take care of formalities and criticized that the psychological loss is not sufficiently taken into account.

The new Maternity Protection Adaptation Act, which was adopted in the Bundestag on January 30, 2025, now enables the following staggered protection periods for women whose pregnancy ends after the 13th week:

• from the 13th week: 2 weeks of maternity protection
• from the 17th week: 6 weeks of maternity protection
• from the 20th week: 8 weeks of maternity protection

For dead births, which are found from the 24th week of pregnancy or with a birth weight of at least 500 grams, a uniform protection period of 14 weeks applies. An important aspect of the new law is also the introduction of a special protection against dismissal after a miscarriage, which has been valid for women after the 12th week of pregnancy since 2018.

changes for different groups of people

The law includes regulations that also affect civil servants, soldiers and the self -employed. In the case of self -employed people, they are expected to voluntarily insure themselves in statutory health insurance in order to receive access to the relevant benefits. The new regulations are intended to ensure that these groups can also benefit from the protection periods. In addition, women have the opportunity to decide for themselves whether they want to take a protection period and are given more freedom of maneuver in a mentally stressful situation through this procedure.

The consideration of emotional stress is a central concern of the reform. Amelie Trapp emphasized that women who suffer a miscarriage before the 12th week should also receive support and a clear claim to medical care. So far, the law does not provide any special regulations for this period, which is criticized by many as inadequate.

The Maternity Protection Act in its expanded form comes into force on June 1, 2025 and represents an important step towards more protection and recognition for women who have suffered miscarriage. In summary, Familienportal.de The new regulations comprehensively and informs about the necessary steps that take off women in such situations have.

The Bundestag not only reacted to the claims from society with the entry into force of this legal regulation, but also took a step towards a more humane handling of pregnancy losses. bmfsfj.de emphasizes that this should help the women to have time to relax process.