You do not have your birth certificate, but you need it for a marriage or other official act, for example? Then you can apply for a birth certificate to be issued.

If you need proof of birth from the former German territories or from the consular and colonial registers, you can apply for a birth certificate. You can obtain this from the registry office I in Berlin.

If you need proof of birth to be presented to foreign bodies, you can apply for a multilingual birth certificate.

If a child is born during a voyage on a German seagoing vessel, the registry office I in Berlin certifies the birth in its birth register. The skipper takes a transcript and forwards it to the Registry Office I in Berlin.

If you have a child, you can apply for child benefit.

When you become a mother, you can receive maternity benefits for the protective periods before and after childbirth as well as for the day of delivery. You can apply for maternity benefit either from your statutory health insurance fund or from the Federal Social Security Office (BAS).

If you look after your child after the birth, the parental allowance compensates for part of the loss of income.

You, your child or another close family member in ascending or descending lineage was born abroad? Then you can have the birth subsequently certified in the birth register at the registry office responsible for you.

• If you wish to make a declaration recognising the motherhood of your child, insofar as your national law or the law of the state in which the child has his habitual residence so requires.

If you as parents are not married to each other at the time of your child's birth, you can obtain joint custody by both submitting declarations of custody.

• If you would like to make a declaration recognising paternity as a child, as well as a declaration of consent from the mother, this can be publicly certified by registrars in any registry office, at youth welfare offices and before notaries.

Have you had a child and would like to determine the child's name and order birth certificates, as well as apply for parental allowance and child benefit? Here you can find out how you can do everything at the same time, bundled and simply with one application.

You have applied for assistance for your child and no longer need it? Then you can end the conservatorship at the local youth welfare office.

You do not have your birth certificate, but you need it for a marriage or other official act, for example? Then you can apply for a printout from the birth register.

If you receive social assistance or basic security and have just had a baby, the social welfare office will bear the costs of counselling sessions.

Have you had a child and would like to submit information and evidence of birth, first name declaration and name determination to the registry office? Find out more here.

You can plan your 3 years of parental leave flexibly, but you must meet certain requirements. You must give notice of your parental leave to your employer.