https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/prozess-neu-ulm-alleingeburt-baby-tot-mutter-grossmutter-li.3399923
Translation from Google:
Complications arose during the home birth; no midwife or doctors were present. Now, the 30-year-old mother and the child's 58-year-old grandmother face charges of negligent homicide.
The infant died the following day in the hospital: oxygen deprivation, the prosecutor read from the indictment, suggesting that the boy's death could easily have been prevented if the mother and grandmother had called emergency services in time. If not immediately at the birth , at home without medical assistance, then at the latest when the infant was born limp, feet first, not breathing, and unresponsive to stimuli. Even then, however, the mother and grandmother waited, which, according to the prosecution, meant they waited too long for medical help during the unassisted home birth.
The prosecutor has charged the two women, aged 30 and 58, with negligent homicide. The mother of the deceased infant listened impassively to the reading of the indictment, while the grandmother, a nurse, slumped slightly in her chair on the defendant's bench at the Neu-Ulm District Court. Why did the women want to attempt the birth alone at home, without a midwife or doctor – even though they apparently knew the child was in a dangerous breech position, making medical assistance all the more necessary?
The two defendants refused to discuss these issues in public. Immediately after providing their personal details, the 30-year-old woman's lawyer requested that the media and spectators be excluded, at least during the defendants' testimony. He argued that the infant's death was a family tragedy and that the risk of further traumatizing his client was too great. The details of the home birth, he maintained, delved too deeply into the defendants' most intimate personal circumstances. The prosecutor and judge concurred with this argument, and requested that the doctors who ultimately provided treatment on the night of the tragedy also testify behind closed doors.
As the spectators left the courtroom, they had at least heard how the investigators reconstructed the circumstances of the birth and summarized them in the indictment: On the morning of September 20, 2023, the heavily pregnant defendant allegedly informed her mother that her labor had begun – on the day of her due date. She is also said to have told her mother that she assumed the child was no longer in a breech position, as she had apparently feared previously. What led her to this assumption remains unclear.
Her mother arrived later that day to help her daughter give birth to her son. According to the prosecutor, labor began around 7:30 p.m. The mother and grandmother then realized during the birth that the child was still in a breech position, a risky situation for delivery, which strongly recommended hospitalization. Despite being aware of the high risk to both mother and child, the prosecutor accuses the defendants of failing to call an ambulance – not even immediately after the lifeless child was born feet first following the difficult delivery. They finally made the emergency call around 11:00 p.m., by which time it was already too late for the boy.
At the end of this day's proceedings, neither the accused women nor the doctors testified. Lawyers, the prosecutor, and the judge withdrew for a legal consultation that lasted more than an hour. The judge then adjourned the trial. At the request of the defense, a gynecological report was to be obtained. The defendants' lawyers argued that a causal link between the alleged breach of duty and the child's death could not be proven. In particular, they argued that other causes of death besides the breech presentation of the infant were also possible. The court will only schedule a new trial date once the report is completed.