In Germany midwives and doctors are equally entitled to carry out prenatal care. More and more often doctors demand that pregnant women waive their right to midwife care and only seek care in the doctor's office. The conflict often occurs when the woman wants to have a basic ultrasound done, but otherwise feels well looked after by her midwife. Some doctors don't like it when they only have to perform those services that are not offered by midwives. In the disputes, doctors put forward arguments that we once collected:
- The right to parallel care by a midwife is called into question. Women are urged to sign that they renounce it.
- Further care in the doctor's practice is questioned or rejected.
- The desire for a single basic ultrasound without simultaneous screening is rejected.
- The reason given is, for example, problems with accounting with the health insurance funds, if, for example, it emerges during examinations that doctors have accounted for examinations that have already been carried out by midwives. In this case, repayments are due because each examination is entered in the maternity record.
- Women are offered the option of paying for an ultrasound privately, even though it is a health insurance benefit.
- Women are accused of irresponsibility
Apart from the fact that such discussions burden the medical practice, they are all questionable violations of the law. Parents are basically responsible for the check-up, which is voluntary. Additional offers from the healthcare market are only available in doctors' surgeries. Nobody has the right to put parents under pressure.
If you have had experiences as described above, you should report these incidents. We provide the form for this purpose. We will be pleased to assist you in filling in the form, please contact us It contains three address fields, i.e. it should be sent to your doctor's practice, to the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung (find via search engine) and to the supervisory authority of the Ministry of Health of your federal state.

Since 2018 our website "Trouble with the doctor's office" has been called up about 6000 times. This is a lot compared to other important issues. But we wonder if parents report what they experience.
We want to encourage you to do it. Why?
1 It is about whether you adapt to the business with health and take part in and pay for everything or whether you go your own way, which is right for you personally.
2 We are of the opinion that the high Caesarean section number is also caused by the huge number of tests and examinations sceduled in the Mutterpass. This makes pregnant women more insecure. But tests cannot heal. They lead to probability results, which often result in follow-up tests.
Many women have recognised this. They want to exercise their right to an untested pregnancy and not to know. This is easier to achieve with a midwife check-up.
3 Unfortunately, this is also about a competition between doctors and midwives that is not new. It is fought on the backs of pregnant women. So far this fight has not been fought in public. This is unfair because women need both during pregnancy and childbirth - midwives always during childbirth and doctors sometimes.
4 You as parents must know: The additional medical services offered during pregnancy are a lucrative source of income because concerned parents can easily be sold many tests and additional examinations. All this is not necessary if a mother has a midwife take care of her.

In recent years, parents have usually had very good experiences with midwives. Word is getting around about this, too, not only with parents but also with doctors. This means that they miss out on the additional income. That is the real reason why doctors want to bind pregnant women to their practice right from the start. This has become so established in 40 years without there being any significant contradiction.
The public is alarmed by the high number of Caesarean sections and far too many premature births. In 2017, the Federal Government, in response to a request in Parliament concerning an attempt to bind women to the medical practice by signing, stated that it should be examined whether there had been a "violation of contractual medical duties". Cooperation with midwives is expressly provided for in the maternity guidelines.
If you want midwifery care to continue in the future, for example if your own daughters have children, then it is not enough today for you to get angry. It is necessary that you summon up the courage and report what is contrary to current law.
For this reason, we developed a one-page form to tick. This form is sent to three recipients, who should know that other offices will also be informed.
If you additionally inform us as GreenBirth, the recipients will know that you are not alone. If you do nothing, the addressees see no reason to change anything because they don't even know what is going on in the doctor's offices.