Birgit Arabin MD, Phd

Dr. Arabin GmbH & Co. KG was not founded with an intention to start a company. Instead, Dr. Hans Arabin developed different models of pessaries initially at his home for the treatment of his own patients with prolapse and incontinence and later to treat his patients at risk of preterm labor. Since 1962, Dr. Hans Arabin was the chair of a private hospital for gynecology and obstetrics in Siegen, where his wife Dr. Gretel Arabin worked as a pediatrician and anesthesiologist. Already at this time, he used “home-made” gynecological pessaries for prolapse and urinary incontinence as an alternative to surgery for older women, where previous operations had made further operations impossible or when anesthesia was too risky.

Due to the high mortality of preterm infants at that time he also designed a cerclage pessary, to hold the cervix as high as possible and to keep it in a rotated stable position. Together with the engineer Lothar Berg and the nurse-practitioner Gabriele Schneider he modified shapes and selected appropriate silicone and metal inlays compatible with mucosa tissue. Only when the production of larger quantities was required due to transferals of problematic patients to his hospital and orders from colleagues, a so-called KG was founded in 1968 allowing production and distribution. After his death in 1990, his wife Dr. Gretel Arabin somehow maintained the production and distribution of pessaries made by home workers for a limited time.