About Hebammenforum

Hebammenforum

Hebammenforum is the monthly members' magazine of the Deutscher Hebammenverband (DHV, German Midwives Association), published since 2000 with the ISSN 1611-4566. As the association's official journal, it combines specialist articles on midwifery with association news, state-specific and nationwide continuing-education dates, conference and congress announcements, and job advertisements. The magazine serves Germany's midwives, the overwhelming majority of whom work wholly or partly freelance, with professional knowledge and the institutional voice of their professional association. Produced in Stuttgart in cooperation with the Thieme publishing group, it is the central print medium of the German midwifery profession and the association's most direct channel to its members.

Overview

Hebammenforum appears monthly as the Mitgliederzeitschrift of the Deutscher Hebammenverband, reaching the association's members across Germany. The content mix reflects its dual role as professional journal and association bulletin: specialist articles address the clinical and professional topics of midwifery, from prenatal care and obstetrics to postpartum care and breastfeeding; association news reports on the DHV's political work, negotiations, and positions; the service sections list continuing-education dates at state and national level, conference and congress dates, and job advertisements for midwives.

The magazine's readership spans the full spectrum of the profession: freelance midwives in private practice, employed midwives in hospital delivery rooms, midwifery students, and the association's functionaries. With around 24,000 midwives working in Germany, the majority freelance at least in part, the magazine addresses a profession whose working conditions, from liability insurance premiums to fee negotiations with the health insurers, are shaped by political decisions that the association reports on and advocates for.

History

The Deutscher Hebammenverband has published Hebammenforum as its members' magazine since 2000. The association itself, known until October 2008 as the Bund Deutscher Hebammen, renamed itself to signal its openness to midwives of all nationalities and cultures and its responsibility for families of all backgrounds. The magazine has accompanied the profession through a period of profound change: the liability-insurance crisis that threatened the existence of freelance midwives, the long-stalled fee negotiations with the statutory health insurers, the academization of midwifery training through the 2019 Midwifery Reform Act that transformed the three-year vocational training into a four-year university degree, and the growing professional-political engagement of young midwives.

Over more than two decades, the magazine has documented the profession's struggles and achievements: the 2012 demonstrations in Berlin that prompted the health minister to promise better support for freelance midwives, the ongoing negotiations since 2019 between the GKV-Spitzenverband, the DHV, and the Bund freiberuflicher Hebammen Deutschlands on a new fee schedule, and the transformation of midwifery education. The journal's archive is a chronicle of German midwifery's recent history. The young midwives' movement, organized in the JuWeHen (young and aspiring midwives), has brought new energy to the profession's politics, with the magazine covering their concerns: the study conditions under the new university-based training, the exchange among students, and their professional-political engagement.

Coverage and Content

The specialist articles cover the clinical core of midwifery: pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period, with attention to both the physiological and the psychosocial dimensions of care. Professional topics address the business of freelance midwifery: starting a practice, billing through the midwives' billing centers, liability insurance, and the pool models through which freelance midwives organize delivery-room services. The magazine reports on the political and legal framework: the Midwifery Reform Act, fee regulations, and the negotiations with insurers and policymakers.

The association news sections keep members informed about the DHV's work: positions, campaigns, and the services of the association and its state chapters. The continuing-education calendar lists training opportunities at state and national level, supporting the profession's lifelong learning. Conference and congress announcements cover the industry's events, from the Thieme-organized Forum Hebammenarbeit to the DHV's own gatherings. The job advertisements serve a profession in which mobility between freelance and employed work is common. Many midwives combine both: employed shifts in the hospital delivery room alongside freelance prenatal and postpartum care, a working model that the magazine's content reflects. The classifieds thus function as a labor-market instrument for a profession with persistent regional supply gaps, connecting midwives seeking new working models with practices, birth centers, and clinics seeking staff.

Organization and Ownership

Hebammenforum is published by the Deutscher Hebammenverband e.V. as its official members' magazine, a role it has held since 2000. The association, headquartered with its federal structure of state associations, represents the professional, economic, and political interests of midwives in Germany. The magazine's production is based in Stuttgart in cooperation with the Thieme publishing group, the Stuttgart-based medical and scientific publisher that also publishes the scientific midwifery journal Die Hebamme and organizes the Forum Hebammenarbeit congress.

The magazine carries the ISSN 1611-4566. As a members' magazine, its distribution is tied to association membership: DHV members receive it as part of their membership, giving it a stable circulation base within the profession. The business model combines the membership distribution with advertising from the industry's suppliers, from midwifery equipment to billing services and insurance, targeting the profession's purchasing decisions.

The Professional Context

German midwifery operates in a distinctive professional and legal framework. The Hebammengesetz (Midwifery Act) and the 2019 reform law regulate training and practice; the transformation from vocational training to university study, completed in recent years, has academized the profession and changed its self-understanding. The majority of Germany's roughly 24,000 midwives work wholly or partly freelance, a structure that gives the profession independence but also exposes it to economic risks, from liability premiums to fee levels.

The DHV's political work, reported in the magazine, addresses these structural questions: the fee negotiations with the statutory health insurers, the liability insurance problem, the working conditions of employed midwives in hospital delivery rooms, and the supply of midwifery care in rural areas. The magazine thus serves not only as a professional journal but as the communication channel of the profession's collective advocacy, keeping members informed about the negotiations and campaigns that shape their working lives.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital presence is embedded in the DHV's and Thieme's digital offerings. The association's website hebammenverband.de carries the profession's news and the magazine's content, while Thieme's platforms, including the Thieme Connect e-journals and the events.thieme.com congress portal, extend the brand into digital publishing and events. The Thieme News Hebammenarbeit newsletter supplies subscribers monthly with the latest information from the field.

For a members' magazine, the digital channels complement the print core: the monthly print issue remains the authoritative medium that reaches every member, while the digital offerings provide timeliness between issues. The combination of the association's advocacy, the magazine's professional journalism, and the digital platforms makes Hebammenforum the central medium of the German midwifery profession, documenting its practice, its politics, and its transformation.

The magazine's role as the profession's memory is particularly valuable in a field where knowledge is transmitted through practice as much as through study. The specialist articles, written by midwives for midwives in the emancipatory tradition that the profession's journals have cultivated, preserve and develop the profession's knowledge base. In a healthcare system where midwives' autonomy is both legally protected and practically contested, a strong professional medium is not a luxury but a necessity: it is where the profession defines itself, debates its future, and speaks with a collective voice.