The bachelor’s degree course for midwives replaces the previous course of training at the higher professional school level. Work as a midwife centres on advice and care for women during puberty, pregnancy, childbirth and recovery, including development of the child in the first year of its life. Midwives take account of individual ideas and the cultural background of women, children and their family. They integrate knowledge of the intellectual, social and natural sciences into their work. They work on an interdisciplinary basis in healthcare institutions, childbirth clinics, surgeries and consultancy centres and in women’s own homes.

Full-time studies are followed by a compulsory ten-month additional clinical practice module. Nursing professionals qualified to tertiary level (AKP, PsyKP, KWS, IKP, DN II, HF) are offered a shortened full-time study programme, which lasts two years.

A midwife can practise her profession employed within an institution, as a midwife affiliated to a hospital, or on an independent basis. During pregnancy, a midwife carries out pregnancy checks and offers advice, runs prenatal classes and prepares the mother and her social network for parenthood. At birth, the midwife supervises, facilitates and monitors delivery of the baby. In the postnatal period, she helps the family through the transition to parenthood. She monitors and helps the new-born baby and the new mother. She helps the mother breastfeed and advises on questions of mother and child nutrition. She will also offer courses in postpartum exercises and pelvic floor training. These are some settings where a midwife may practise:

• Public and private hospitals and clinics
• Childbirth clinics
• Private households
• Midwifery clinics / practices
• Consultancy centres
• Educational institutions.