Why are Germany's midwives feeling squeezed out?

Fewer midwives are attending to birth in the country, where insurance premiums are punitive and medical intervention is increasingly widespread. And it’s not only mothers who are missing their skills

Ten years ago, Dr Christiane Schwarz - a lecturer and researcher - decided that she could no longer continue working as a midwife in Germany. “It was not so much about how we were treated but how the labouring women were treated, she says. “Having worked in the UK and New Zealand, I knew it is possible to care for women and babies with much more respect”.

Related: European nurses and midwives leaving UK in droves since Brexit vote

Midwives now work just like doctors. They are on the clock, and are just as likely to carry out an intervention

Continue reading... November 23, 2017 at 08:26PM