A total of 21,110 children were born in Munich in 2023. According to the Munich Statistical Office, 15,667 of these babies are “Münchner Kindl”, i.e. newborns who also live in the state capital. Many people consider the fact that one baby in particular survived to be a miracle: the premature baby weighed 310 grams when it was born at the Munich Clinic in Harlaching – 60 grams more than a conventional piece of butter.
The baby is the smallest premature baby ever born in one of the three municipal women’s clinics at the Munich Clinic (Mük). As Mük reports, the child was cared for in the Harlaching neonatal intensive care unit after four months of intensive care. A few days ago the child was allowed to go home. Now it weighs two kilograms.
A total of around five percent fewer children were born in Munich than in 2022. There were 16,540. In the pandemic year 2021 there were significantly more, 18,330 children. But that was an exception. The number of births in Germany is generally declining significantly. Compared to the previous year, according to the Federal Statistical Office, it is around seven percent.
5,886 babies were born in the Munich Clinic’s three municipal women’s clinics. In Harlaching 2273 children, in Schwabing 2426 and in Neuperlach 1187. This means that most of the city’s children are born in the Mük. There were two triplet births in 2023, as well as 93 sets of twins.
The care of the very little ones is guaranteed
According to Mük, the number of babies born prematurely is increasing. 47 premature babies were cared for in Harlaching and 43 in Schwabing. While there were 82 premature babies in 2022, in 2023 there will be a total of 90 premature babies with a birth weight of less than 1500 grams. The Mük locations in Harlaching and Schwabing care for premature and high-risk babies. Both locations are considered level 1 perinatal centers. This means that the most severe cases are treated and cared for here, as are premature births with a birth weight of less than 1,250 grams.
According to a new guideline from the Federal Joint Committee, at least 25 children with a birth weight of less than 1250 grams must be cared for at every level 1 location in the future. “Our two neonatologies are well above the required limit,” says Marcus Krüger. The chief physician of neonatology in Harlaching and Schwabing sees the care of “extremely small premature babies” in the Munich clinic as “secure”.
The new building for the Munich Clinic Schwabing will be ready in March. Then there will be even more delivery rooms in the maternity ward of the new clinic for pediatric and adolescent medicine. The goal is for the obstetrics, pediatric and gynecology teams to work intensively together. According to the new Mük managing director Götz Brodermann, this has “exemplary character”.