Abstract
Around the world, midwives support women and families during an exciting and vulnerable time of their life. Although there are general aspects of midwifery, such as the support during labour and birth, the scope of practice differs greatly between countries and regions around the globe. The education of midwives also varies, with the aim to prepare aspiring midwives successfully for their work environment. Despite this, there might be a little (or larger) gap between what students are taught and what they will be confronted with as junior midwives. This chapter presents insights into midwifery practice and training in Germany and illustrates how junior midwives in Germany master the transition from student to midwife. The chapter will commence with some background information about Germany to provide the context to midwifery. It will then present the scope of maternity services and the variety of educational pathways which lead to registration as a midwife in Germany. At the end, one midwife illustrates her own transition process as a newly qualified midwife.
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Notes
- 1.
The Australian Capital Territory counts approximately 167 inhabitants/km2; German average is 232/km2.
- 2.
Including German reimmigration.
- 3.
In Germany, gynaecologists have specialised in women’s health including obstetrics. There exists no separate specialisation for obstetric medicine.
- 4.
Recommended literature: QUAG, 2018: Quality report about out-of-hospital labour and birth in Germany (partly in English), available under: http://www.quag.de/quag/publikationen.htm.
- 5.
There is no standardised English term for this model of care, but it is sometimes called an “attached midwife” or “external midwife”.
- 6.
The term‚ undocumented migrants, describes people who live in a country without the awareness or approval of the authorities. Sometimes this group is called “illegal” (im)migrants.
- 7.
With one exception though, independent midwives can only charge midwifery services with health insurance companies, if they can attest to have been supervised for 480 h in community care, regardless whether this was a part of their midwifery training or if they were supervised after graduation. Most midwifery schools include 480 h or less in the training (in the curriculum, these hours are partly deducted from “labour ward and antenatal care” and/or “postnatal and newborn care”.
- 8.
Current developments are reported online at: hebammenkammer.org.
References
National Statistics on Population and Healthcare
Gesellschaft für Qualität in der außerklinischen Geburtshilfe [Society for Quality in out-of-hospital labour and birth] (QUAG). Loytved, Christine. Qualitätsbericht 2017. Außerklinische Geburtshilfe in Deutschland. 2018. www.quag.de/quag/publikationen.htm. Accessed 12 Feb 2019
Institut für Qualitätssicherung und Transparenz im Gesundheitswesen [Institute for Quality and Transparency in Health Care] (IQTIG). Bundesauswertung zum Erfassungsjahr 2017. Geburtshilfe. Qualitätsindikatoren. 2018. https://iqtig.org/qs-verfahren/gebh/. Accessed 12 Feb 2019
Statistisches Bundesamt [Federal Statistical Office] (Destatis). Facts and figures. Society and state. Population. 2017. https://www.destatis.de/DE/ZahlenFakten/GesellschaftStaat/Bevoelkerung/Geburten/Geburten.html. Accessed 12 Feb 2019
Statistisches Bundesamt [Federal Statistical Office] (Destatis). DRG-Statistik. Kaiserschnitte nach Kreisen. Sonderauswertung. Wiesbaden: Destatis; 2015. See also: https://faktencheck-gesundheit.de/de/faktenchecks/kaiserschnitt/interaktive-karte/kaiserschnitt/
Midwifery Legislation and Guidelines
Hebammengesetz [National midwifery law] of 1985, last amended 2016.
Mutterschaftsrichtlinie [Guideline for antenatal care] of 1985, last amended 2016.
Ausbildungs- und Prüfungsverordnung für Hebammen und Entbindungspfleger [Education and Examination Act for Midwives] of 1981, last amended 2016.
Professional Bodies for Midwives
Deutscher Hebammenverband [German Midwifery Association] (DHV). 2018 www.hebammenverband.de
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hebammenwissenschaft [German Society of Midwifery Science] (DGHWi). n.d. www.dghwi.de
Hebammenkammer [Midwifery Council]. n.d. www.hebammenkammer.org
Other Cited Material
Scholz G. Arbeitsstrukturen und Leistungsangebote von Hebammen in der Region Hannover [Working patterns and Services of Midwives in the Hanover Region]. Unpublished MSc Thesis. Master of Science in Public Health at Hannover Medical School; 2017. Accessed 9 Oct 2018.
Baumgärtner B, Stahl K. Einfach schwanger? Wie erleben Frauen die Risikoorientierung in der ärztlichen Schwangerenvorsorge? [Simply pregnant? Women’s experiences of the risk-orientation in gynaecological antenatal care]. 2nd ed. Frankfurt am Main: Mabuse-Verlag; 2011.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Anne Kasper and Mike Hall for your review of content and spelling and for your detailed feedback to improve this chapter. Thank you, Annika Vondracek for willingly sharing your experience with us. Thank you so much Michelle Gray and Julia Leinweber for guiding me towards this wonderful opportunity to share insights into midwifery practice and education in Germany. It has been a pleasure to contribute this chapter.
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Weckend, M.J. (2019). Midwifery in Germany: Practice, Education and Transition for Newly Qualified Midwives. In: Gray, M., Kitson-Reynolds, E., Cummins, A. (eds) Starting Life as a Midwife. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93852-3_6
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