The tests the public system covers, the windows that do not come back, and the deadlines that cost money if you miss them. With the official source under each one.
essentials — Germany
The deadlines we have verified, and what this country does differently. Not the full picture.
We are not a local edition: we say that a thing exists and that it has a date, in the words you will need at the counter — then we send you to the body that decides.
What is different in Germany
Combined screening (nuchal scan) or NIPT — Between 11+0 and 13+6 · not covered by public healthcare◐ We are re-checking this: Our note lumps two different tests together and gives them one answer. We are checking them separately and will change this line.
Anomaly (anatomy) scan — Between weeks 18 and 21 (2. Screening)
Glucose curve (75 g OGTT) — Between weeks 24 and 27: 50 g test, NO fasting needed
Growth ultrasound — Between weeks 28 and 31 (3. Screening)
GBS vaginal-rectal swab — Between weeks 35 and 37 — not covered by public healthcare
The deadlines that cost money
◐partly checkedCannot be recoveredReminder: about 84 days before the due date
Elternzeit: seven weeks' written notice
German parental leave must be requested from the employer in writing seven weeks ahead. That means filing it during pregnancy, not after the birth: it is the costliest mistake in Germany. And the Elterngeld that goes with it is only backdated three months — every month of delay is a month lost.
What we have not checked: We have not checked which office takes the Elterngeld claim: each Land runs its own Elterngeldstelle, and the address depends on where you live. Your employer or your Krankenkasse will know.
These things exist here, and we have not read the rules at the source — so we are not going to write them. What we can give you is the two halves that are useful anyway: the name to say, and the body that answers.
○we don't know yet
Mutterschaftsgeld
The money that replaces your pay while you are off around the birth.
Who to ask: Your Krankenkasse. If you are not in a statutory fund, the Bundesamt für Soziale Sicherung handles it instead.
General information, not legal or medical advice. Rules change: the date next to each source is the day a person last re-read it. For your own case, the body named on the page is the one that answers.
In the app the same deadlines arrive as a reminder, counted from your own due date.
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