Midwives strike for four days

Bad working conditions: Midwives in Schleswig-Holstein strike

26/04/2011

Already in March, the midwives association Mittelfranken reported that fewer and fewer freelance midwives offer obstetric care and that the profession as a whole is threatened. Now also the midwives in Schleswig-Holstein are planning a strike to draw attention to the problems of their profession.

The midwives in Schleswig-Holstein will resign from 2 to 5 May and will not perform any check-ups, birth preparation and childbed care. With the four-day strike, the midwives want to point out the abuses in the working conditions and increase the pressure on health insurance and politics. In particular, the massive increase in liability premiums prepare numerous freelance midwives significant problems. Last year, the German Midwives Association (DHV) had already pointed out the financial difficulties of the midwives and initiated an online petition for the receipt of local care with midwife help.

Midwives give up childbirth care and obstetrics
More and more midwives give up the freelance childbirth care and obstetrics,
warned Margret Salzmann, chairman of the Midwives Association Schleswig-Holstein. This is due to the fact that premiums for professional indemnity insurance with midwives have more than tripled since 2007, causing the average net hourly rate for a home birth to have dropped below five euros, stressed Salzmann. In order to draw attention to the grievances in their professional situation, the midwives in Schleswig-Holstein have now decided to strike for the first time. From 2 to 5 May, there will be no check-ups, birth preparation and childbed care. For emergencies and spontaneous births, the approximately 550 Schleswig-Holstein obstetricians are still available. The strike would increase the pressure on the health insurance companies and politicians to do something about the inadequate working conditions in the profession of midwives, explained Margret Salzmann. „The drastic increase in the professional liability premium for the self-employed in the past year and the fact that since 2007, the start of our self-government, there has been no increase in fees,“ sharpened the occupational situation of the obstetricians enormously, stressed the chairman of the midwives association Schleswig-Holstein, representative of the approximately 630 midwives in Schleswig-Holstein.

Midwives suffer from unreasonable working conditions
Every fifth freelance midwife in Schleswig-Holstein (20 percent) has already given up obstetrics because of the unacceptable professional situation, said the chairman of the Midwives Association Schleswig-Holstein. This is significantly more than the national average, and according to the German Midwives Association since July 2010, about 15 percent of obstetricians in Germany have given up the core of their work because of excessive costs. Homebirths or deliveries in the birthplace could in the future become impossible in view of the impending midwife shortage, said in March already the chairman of the Midwives Association Mittelfranken, Steffi Kuntze. Even today, many midwives only provide for prenatal care and aftercare, but are not present at the actual birth in the hospital, although according to the German Association of midwives (DHV), especially at birth, the relationship of trust between midwife and expectant mother plays a particularly important role.

German Midwives Association fights for the preservation of local care
The fact that a lot of midwives hang their work on the nail is, according to all association spokesman only too well to understand. Because the increased liability premiums would have meant that freelance midwives pay around 37,000 euros a year for their insurance, with an average annual income of about 14,000 euros, said the chairman of the Midwives Association Schleswig-Holstein. According to Margret Salzmann, both the insurance premiums and the remuneration for benefits require a significant adjustment in order to make the profession more attractive again. Last year, the German Midwives Association had already campaigned with an online petition for the preservation of local care with midwife help.

186,356 signatories joined in last year the demand of the DHV, which received the petition most supporters of all submitted online petitions. „The Ministry of Health then commissioned a study on nationwide care“, said the spokeswoman for the DHV, Edith Wolber. The Federal Minister of Health Philipp Rösler (FDP) also promised to convene a round table with representatives of the health insurance funds and the midwife association to discuss the problems of midwives. So far, however, little has happened and more and more midwives are in the meantime cease their work, warned the chairman of the Bavarian Midwives Association, Astrid Giesen in March. The expert added: „I do not think we can get the women back in the boat once gone“, even if the remuneration and insurance rules are subsequently changed. Thus, in the future probably the complaints of women will pile up, because „they no longer find any midwives to look after them close to their homes during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium“ emphasized the DHV spokeswoman Edith Wolber. On the International Midwife Day (May 5), obstetricians want to take to the streets in Schleswig-Holstein and, together with parents and children, give more weight to their demand for better working conditions. (Fp)

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Picture: Hartmut 910