HebPlanet

Development, implementation and evaluation of a practice-orientated Planetary Health model curriculum for sustainable health care by midwives

Humanity is facing a planetary triple crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution are having a negative impact on health, especially for vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and children. Midwives play a key role in this phase of life and can act as change agents and multipliers for planetary health to support young families in health and sustainability.

The academisation of midwifery training offers the opportunity to systematically integrate planetary health into teaching. To date, however, there has been a lack of corresponding teaching content and systematic surveys on students' knowledge gains.

The aim of the project is to develop and embed a planetary health curriculum to enable midwives to become planetary health literate. This includes the integration of topics such as climate-sensitive health counselling on sustainable nutrition, active mobility and resource-conserving professional practice into the midwifery degree programme.

The project is being carried out in collaboration with Prof Dr Barbara Fillenberg and her team from the Department of Midwifery Science at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and is supported by an interdisciplinary advisory board.

HebPlanet is funded by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) and runs from 1st January 2025 to 31st December 2027. Further information on the project can be found on the DBU website.