The report provides a comprehensive database on the inpatient care situation with midwife services. For this purpose, statistical population and hospital data were evaluated and maternity clinics, midwives and mothers were interviewed. After that, the care in inpatient obstetrics is good overall. 99 percent of the mothers surveyed were able to give birth in the hospital of their choice. Overall, 81 percent of the mothers surveyed were satisfied with the midwifery service. 97 percent of women of childbearing age need less than 40 minutes to drive, 88 percent less than 30 minutes to the nearest maternity clinic. However, there are marked differences in utilization between smaller maternity clinics in rural regions and perinatal centers and maternity clinics in larger cities. In addition, 60 percent of the participating clinics reported difficulties in filling midwife positions. One reason for this could be that the full-time quota of midwives is low. Of the employed midwives, no more than a third work full-time. The reasons given for this were a high workload and shift work.
At the beginning of 2019, the Federal Ministry of Health presented “immediate measures to strengthen obstetrics” in order to ensure nationwide provision of midwifery services in the future. In addition to the awarding of the report now presented, this includes the establishment of a database for midwives by the Central Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds and the reform of midwifery training, according to which midwives are now being prepared for their profession in a dual course of study.