Parents' advice at Pro Familia: "We feel the plight of the families"

Ms. Pinne, you have been working at Pro Familia for 22 years and now you run the two counseling centers in Offenbach and Dietzenbach.

When one thinks of Pro Familia, one often associates this organization with counseling on abortion, but that is not enough.

Who do you advise?

Individuals and couples can turn to us with any pregnancy-related questions or pregnancy-related issues.

This is our legal mandate, it begins before pregnancy and continues until the child is three years old.

Therefore, we provide support over a long period of time.

We not only advise people who are already pregnant or have children, but also on unwanted childlessness or on questions that can arise before a possible pregnancy.

What are the most common questions that women and couples come to you with?

During pregnancy, people often come to us with questions about financial benefits.

We then help, for example, with applications for child benefit, parental leave and parental allowance.

Our advice is for all families, not just those in financial distress.

Colleagues in counseling are always

on all social benefits .

However, the form of counseling differs from counseling center to counseling center, some help with filling out the applications, others only act in an advisory capacity.

What are the current major problems that families come to you with?

A major problem is the glaring lack of affordable housing.

Many families live in precarious housing conditions.

When a child is born, the family often grows but income falls.

There is a need for more housing, but at the same time families have less money.

This is also a very frustrating issue for us, because we feel the need of the families here due to the situation on the housing market and can hardly offer any help.

Do you advise on all questions and problems yourself?

Yes, we first advise ourselves and listen to the entire situation.

Depending on the nature of the problem, we forward it to specialized bodies.

We have some positions in-house ourselves, such as partnership advice, and for other issues we pass them on to cooperation partners.

Relationship problems in particular can sometimes involve sensitive issues such as suspected domestic violence.

How do you address these issues?

This requires alert perception and careful questioning.

It happens that we are actually advising on the subject of parental allowance, but in passing hear that there is a problem of violence.

It is important that we ask questions and name our assumptions.

Then women have a chance to respond.

It is important for me to emphasize that we support where support is desired, but that we preserve and respect the boundaries of pregnant women and couples.

We're just making an offer and we're not making decisions over the woman's head.

Which people come to you for advice?

People come to us from all income brackets, single parents, couples, patchwork families, queer couples and very wealthy couples.

It's very different.

But the stress that pregnancy and childbirth can bring is the same for all partnerships.

What are the burdens?

We always get the message of a happy family from the media, and many think that it must be the same for them after the birth.

It's good for couples to admit that things can be different.

The couple must reorganize, and often both suffer from severe sleep deprivation.

New crises arise or old ones flare up again.

After the birth you become parents and are often hardly a couple anymore.

Different stories and biographies come together, and the desire to go on holiday or even just to sleep in a hotel is completely understandable.

Do men come to you alone?