Warning of midwife shortage

Warning of midwife shortage. There are already first bottlenecks in the country. However, agreement was reached on the remuneration of non-hospital births.

(07.07.2010) Due to the significant rise in professional liability premiums, there could be a shortage of freelance midwives in the future, the Association of Midwives in Schleswig-Holstein currently warns. The background to the warning is the extremely high premiums for professional midwives. In the opinion of the midwives associations, the increased premiums endanger "economically viable obstetrics". Since 1992, the annual premium has increased almost tenfold. Since the first of July 2010, the premium has increased again from 2370 to 3689 euros.

So said the head of the Association of midwives association to the "dpa": "Some midwives have already stopped the obstetrics because they can not pay the high contributions." Particularly dangerous would be the situation in the country, here there is already a significant shortage. In the cities where there are birthing centers and clinics, the lack of midwives is not yet noticeable.

Improve the remuneration of midwives.
Midwives may soon be looking forward to improving their compensation. After months of negotiations with the associations of health insurance, an agreement could finally be reached. For example, midwives are to be remunerated 100 euros gross for each birth outside of a hospital retroactively to the first of July 2010. For each birth in a clinic, the midwives should receive an additional eight euros. Midwives who work outside of a clinic should also be able to bill births in the future if, for example, they were aborted and continued in a hospital. In the autumn of this year will then be negotiated once again how so-called way fee flat rates and packages for the birth preparation can be settled.

Protest of parents and midwives had made the agreement possible.
Currently, a midwife earns an average of 7.50 euros gross per hour. That is not much, and the increase in the professional liability premium has further aggravated the situation of obstetricians. But that had led nationwide to protests from parents and obstetricians. Numerous demonstrations were organized and signatures lists distributed. An online petition also generated more than 180,000 signatures. Many midwives still feared for their economic existence. Parents also feared that they would no longer find obstetricians, as the profession is no longer worthwhile for many midwives. The health of children is thus at risk. (Sb)