Mothers In Germany Research Articles

The relation between attachment and intergenerational support.

This study investigated the relation between the internal representation of attachment and the perception of the actual exchange of intergenerational support within 100dyads of adult daughters and their elderly mothers in Germany. Results showed relations between the daughters' preoccupation and avoidance with their perception of receiving emotional support from their parents and providing instrumental support to them. No relations were found between the mothers' attachment and the support they provided to the daughters. These results are discussed with respect to different conditions for emotional and instrumental support of adult daughters and their elderly mothers, and a relationship specific approach to attachment.

Role of Helicobacter pylori infection in iron deficiency during pregnancy

We investigated the possible role of Helicobacter pylori infection in iron deficiency during pregnancy in a large group of mothers in Germany after the birth of their baby under special consideration of iron supplementation. All women who were delivered of their baby between November 2000 and November 2001 at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the University of Ulm, Germany, were recruited for the study. Hemoglobin levels at various points of time during pregnancy were obtained from the mothers' health charts. Current H pylori infection was determined by 13 C-urea breath test. We used multiple linear regression analyses to assess the impact of infection status on hemoglobin level at the beginning of pregnancy and on hemoglobin change during pregnancy. Twenty-three percent of the 898 mothers had a H pylori infection, and 20% of the mothers had a hemoglobin level below 12 g/dL at the beginning of pregnancy. Compared with uninfected mothers, mothers with H pylori infection had a lower mean hemoglobin level at the beginning of pregnancy (-0.25 g/dL; 95% CI, -0.49, -0.003) and a more unfavorable change in hemoglobin level during pregnancy (-0.14 g/dL; 95% CI, -0.38, 0.10). This study supports a possible moderate, but still relevant, independent role of H pylori infection in iron deficiency during pregnancy.

Sich-verantwortlich-Fühlen als zentrale Pflegemotivation. Warum Töchter ihre Mütter pflegen

The willingness of daughters to care for their mothers in Germany is still very high. Time and again daughters cite as reasons a certain self-evidence and a moral duty as core and relatively unspecific motives. A reconstructing case study which had as primary goal the analysis of the transition from daughter to caregiving daughter (Geister, 2004) offered the possibility to research the motives of these women more precisely. This paper, which focuses on only one aspect of the study, shows the correlation between the feeling of responsibility and the motivation to caregiving, utilizing the example of two women. The data was obtained by biographical narrative interviews with twelve caregiving daughters. Evaluation was done in accordance with the method of biographical case reconstruction by Gabriele Rosenthal (1987; 1995). The results of the two case reconstructions led to the conclusion that the motivation of these women to care for their mothers was embedded in their life history. These findings also apply to the other ten interviewed women. During the course of their lives a feeling of responsibility arose usually long before the necessity for caregiving occurred. The feeling of responsibility nurtured the development of a caring attitude towards the mother, which was expressed in caring and increasingly help providing activities by the daughter. Caregiving embodied the intensification of this responsibility motivated care. The awareness of personal responsibility for the mother implicits the acceptance of possible caregiving. Further concept developments about the support for caregiving daughters should more strongly consider their individual motives of responsibility.

SUPPORT FOR YOUNG PREGNANT WOMEN AND JUVENILE MOTHERS IN GERMANY: HISTORICAL CHANGES IN CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES

I discuss some of the historical stages in social policy concerning underage pregnant women and mothers in Germany from the end of the nineteenth century until today. Of central concern here is the development of various socio-pedagogical concepts of support and the correlating social perceptions of juvenile illegitimate pregnancy. While substantial changes can be seen in this period there is at the same time surprisingly much remains in place. Especially notable among the changes is the legislation and coordination of protection and aid established during the Weimar Republic as well as later in the 1990s the growing number of legislated aid-structures enabling the development of individualized concepts of support. By contrast however there is also a remarkable historical continuity especially in regard to a prevailing discourse of discipline aimed at underage pregnant women and mothers. My argument in brief is as follows: the foundation of socio- pedagogical aid-strategies at the close of the nineteenth century reflected dominant bourgeois norms which focused on the moral stigmatization and social disciplining of young women. This pattern although modified by the democratical legislation of the Weimar Republic extended well into the era of West German post-war society. Significant steps towards contemporary legal protection and social acceptance of underage pregnancy and motherhood today have not been established without contradiction. (authors)

The Effects of Children on Married and Lone Mothers' Employment in the United States and (West) Germany

This study focuses on the effects of children on the labour supply of married and lone mothers in the USA and Germany using individual-level longitudinal data and event-history analysis. Employment exits and (re-)entries are examined in various stages of the family life cycle in order to assess the impact of children of various ages on their mothers' employment patterns. Analyses based on the National Survey of Families and Households (USA) and the Socioeconomic Panel (Germany) show that lone mothers have in general equal or lower rates of work exits than married mothers, and equal or higher rates of employment (re-)entries when other factors are controlled. This high degree of work activity among lone mothers is often overlooked in debates that focus on the poverty and welfare dependency of lone-mother households. The differences between lone and married mothers are in general considerably greater in Germany than in the USA. Lone mothers in Germany rely more on full-time employment than married women, for whom part-time work is an important form of re-employment after employment interruptions. Also, in the USA part-time employment is associated only with married women as a way to reconcile employment and children. Finally, the timing of childbearing emerges as an important determinant of how women's careers evolve over the life course.

Does the availability of child care influence the employment of mothers? Findings from western Germany

There is a vast empirical literature investigating the effects of child care costson female employment. Day-care costs are usually treated as a reduction infemale wages and are supposed to reduce a woman's propensity to participatein the labor market. In this paper we argue that an analysis of the effects ofchild care on the employment of mothers in Germany should focus on theavailability rather than the affordability of care, due to peculiarities of theGerman day-care regime. Our empirical findings cast doubt on the effectivenessof the current German day-care regime. Specifically, we question the extent towhich it enables mothers to participate in the labor market.

Rationalizing Family work: Municipal Family Welfare and Urban Working Class Mothers in Germany

Considering the importance of maternity, infant, and child welfare within the family policy and welfare system, and the long-term and extensive effect of this area of welfare policy on the “ rationlization” of everyday life, it is astonishing how little attention has been paid to this topic by German historians compared to their colleagues in other countries, particularly the United States. The article will thus take a closer look at the development of public health programs for mother and childern using a regional example. In doing so, the author hopes to bring out not only the ambivalent gender-specific consequence of this modern form of welfare, but also the lines of continuity and the breaks between Imperial Germancy, the Weimar Republic, and Notional Socialism. The focus will be on welfare programs for married pregnant women and legitimate infants and small childern as central areas within “preventative public health”.

Prevention of neonatal risk by general screening for diabetes in pregnancy, intensive diagnosis and subsequent therapy

Only 10% of all gestational diabetic mothers in Germany are diagnosed with the current risk-screening. The elevated perinatal risks in case of an unrecognized or insufficiently treated gestational diabetes remains controversial. The purpose of our study was to determine if the number of recognized cases could be increased by a general screening method, and with intensive medical diagnostics the complication rate reduced. Routine blood glucose samplings during the outpatient care were performed throughout the pregnancy. In case of values over 100 mg/dl a 75 g OGTT was done for an exclusion of gestational diabetes. In case of gestational diabetes the patients were asked to follow a special exercise and diet programme as well as self-blood glucose determinations throughout the day. The amniotic fluid insulin level was of substantial value for the indication of insulin therapy. In 6% of the screened patients a gestational diabetes was diagnosed. There was a significant increase (p < 0.001) of fetal macrosomia and diabetic fetopathy in the group without amniocentesis (n = 22) in comparison to the group with invasive (n = 81). We demand the introduction of a general screening for every pregnant patient. By an intensification of the diagnostic methods as well as by a strictly appropriate therapy it should be possible to reduce the fetal and neonatal complications.

Childrearing Attitudes of Mothers in Germany and the United States

Childrearing Attitudes of Mothers in Germany and the United States