Birgit Rutz was born in 1973 and has been married to a professional military officer for almost 30 years. She is the mother of seven children, two of whom, a son and a daughter, survived and five who began their journey

home in early pregnancy.

Birgit Rutz is a death and grief counselor for families and a birth and bereavement doula.

She is the founder and director of Hope’s Angel, an organization that provides support for families experiencing the premature death of their child and after prenatal medical diagnosis, as well as advising professionals.

Among other things, she is a lecturer for the Hospice Academy in Bamberg, for the Akademie Regenbogen in Düsseldorf, Germany, and for the Federal Association of Funeral Homes; she gives doula training courses and

workshops for the Lavia Family Grief Support of Mechthild Schroeter- Rupieper. She is a member of the Working Group on Medical Ethics and Islam for Islamic-theological and medical-ethical implications of current

developments in prenatal diagnostics.

Birgit Rutz is an author and co-author of several books and she has built up a network of midwives, doulas, death and grief counselors, funeral homes, mourning groups, and regression courses for bereaved families throughout Germany, with further contacts in Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium.

In addition, Birgit Rutz regularly offers advanced training for obstetrics staff, funeral homes, grief counselors, therapists, and psychologists, and has established a successful one-year training program on providing support for families experiencing the premature death of their child and after prenatal

medical diagnosis.

She also works as a local family grief counselor.