Finding a Hebamme in Frankfurt: The Free Safety Net Only Starts After the Birth

Hebamme (midwife) support during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period is a legal right in Germany under SGB V Section 24d, fully covered by statutory health insurance, but in Frankfurt actually finding one with real capacity is genuinely difficult. The city's own dedicated safety net, the Frankfurter Wochenbett-Notversorgung, has run a free hotline (0160 99 20 72 71, Monday to Friday 10:00 to 12:00) since September 2019, funded by the Dr. Senckenbergische Stiftung together with the City of Frankfurt, coordinated by three named midwives who match families to a Nachsorgehebamme with open capacity. The catch worth knowing early: that service covers postpartum (Nachsorge) care only, not the prenatal search, so if you're still pregnant and hebamme-less, you're relying on the same nationwide tools as everywhere else, Ammely and the GKV-Spitzenverband's Hebammenliste, plus Rhein-Main-specific directories like kidsgo.de and Frankfurt's own official midwife list. Real search accounts from the Frankfurt and Main-Taunus region describe the hunt as genuinely hard, one urbia.de thread called it a 'catastrophe,' with birth-house midwives reportedly dividing postal codes among themselves and personal recommendations working better than cold-calling names off a directory.

The Official Rule

Hebamme support is a legal entitlement in Germany under SGB V Section 24d, and statutory health insurance (GKV) covers it in full: pregnancy checkups, birth support, and postpartum home visits included. The care splits into two roles that don’t have to be filled by the same person. A Vorsorgehebamme handles prenatal checkups (weight, blood pressure, urine tests, checking the baby’s position, though ultrasounds stay with your doctor), and a Nachsorgehebamme handles the postpartum period. Postpartum visits are generous on paper, up to two a day through the 10th or 11th day after birth, then continuing on a tapering schedule up to a total of 16 visits through the 12th week, with up to 8 additional breastfeeding-focused consultations available after that if needed.

Days 1 to 10-11Up to two Nachsorgehebamme home visits a day.
Through week 12Tapering visit schedule, up to 16 total visits since birth.
After week 12, if neededUp to 8 additional breastfeeding-specific consultations.

If you specifically want a personal midwife present for the birth itself in the hospital, a Beleghebamme, that’s a different arrangement with a real cost attached. A “Begleit-Beleghebamme” personally accompanies you before, during, and after the birth, typically on call from around week 38, while a “Dienst-Beleghebamme” works hospital shift rotations without that personal continuity. The on-call fee for a Begleit-Beleghebamme runs roughly 700 to 1,200 euros depending on the region, and your Krankenkasse only covers around 250 euros of that, the rest comes out of pocket. Standard hebamme care, the kind most families use, carries none of this cost.

Finding a hebamme with actual open capacity is the real bottleneck, not the legal entitlement itself. The GKV-Spitzenverband’s Hebammenliste is the official nationwide directory, over 18,000 registered freelance midwives searchable by postal code, though for privacy reasons it lists contact details rather than showing addresses on a map or confirming real-time availability. Ammely, a joint project between the Deutscher Hebammenverband and Keleya Digital Health, filters by language, type of care, and location, and Hessen’s own regional midwives’ association, the Landesverband der Hessischen Hebammen, points families to it directly rather than running its own matching service. Locally, Frankfurt’s own Wochenbett-Notversorgung project maintains a page listing the platforms it recommends for a prenatal search specifically: gkv-spitzenverband.de, ammely.de, hebammensuche.de, kidsgo.de’s Rhein-Main listings, and babyclub.de.

A pregnant woman in a light blue shirt resting her hands on her belly while seated

Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels

What Frankfurt Families Actually Run Into

Frankfurt’s own answer to a broken postpartum search has a name, a start date, and named coordinators, worth knowing precisely because it’s easy to assume it covers more than it does. The Frankfurter Wochenbett-Notversorgung launched on 2 September 2019, funded by the Dr. Senckenbergische Stiftung (which also operates Bürgerhospital Frankfurt) together with the City of Frankfurt, after rising birth numbers since 2016 collided with self-employed midwives citing an unsustainable ratio of workload to pay and mounting documentation requirements. Three coordinating midwives run it, and the service offers phone consultation, coordination of postpartum home visits in a newborn’s first ten days where capacity allows, and referrals to nearby midwife practices, all free, reachable at 0160 99 20 72 71, Monday to Friday 10:00 to 12:00, or through an online intake form. What it doesn’t do is help with a prenatal search. It’s explicitly a Wochenbett (postpartum period) service, so if you’re still pregnant and struggling to find a Vorsorgehebamme, this specific hotline isn’t the tool, the general platforms above are.

Real accounts from the Frankfurt and Main-Taunus region back up why a dedicated safety net was worth building. One urbia.de thread from parents in the Main-Taunus-Kreis describes the local search as an outright catastrophe, with the original poster reporting that hebammen affiliated with area Geburtshaus practices have effectively divided up postal codes among themselves, each covering only their own patch. What worked for posters in that same thread: contacting a Geburtshaus or hospital directly rather than relying purely on directories (one poster noted that Klinik Bad Soden also arranges midwives for patients), and personal recommendations from friends, since, as one participant put it, picking a name off a list with no context to judge by is a weak way to choose someone who’ll be in your home during a vulnerable period. Enrolling in a birth preparation course early is repeatedly cited elsewhere in Germany as a real channel to a personal connection with an available hebamme, and it’s worth trying alongside the platforms above rather than as a last resort.

Step by Step

Start contacting hebammen the same week you get a positive pregnancy test, not at the end of the first trimester. Real accounts from the Frankfurt/Main-Taunus region describe the search running long even for early starters.
Search the GKV-Spitzenverband’s Hebammenliste and Ammely in parallel, both are free nationwide directories, and Ammely’s language and care-type filters help if you specifically need non-German-language support.
Contact Geburtshaus practices and hospitals directly, not just names from a list. Main-Taunus parents report success this way, including hospitals like Klinik Bad Soden that mediate midwife placements themselves.
Enroll in a birth preparation course early, this is a repeatedly cited real channel to a personal connection with an available hebamme, not just prenatal education.
Decide whether you need a Beleghebamme for hospital birth support, and budget for the out-of-pocket portion of the on-call fee if so, standard care doesn’t carry this cost.
If you’re already through the birth and still without postpartum coverage, call the Frankfurter Wochenbett-Notversorgung at 0160 99 20 72 71 (Mon-Fri 10:00-12:00) rather than continuing to cold-call alone, this is precisely the situation it exists for.
If you’re still pregnant and stuck, keep working the general platforms rather than waiting on that hotline, it’s built for the postpartum period specifically, not the prenatal search.

Compliance Note

This page explains the general framework for hebamme care and how the search process tends to play out in Frankfurt, but it is not medical advice, and neither Krankenkasse coverage details nor Beleghebamme fees are guaranteed to stay the same over time. For your specific coverage, confirm current terms directly with your Krankenkasse, and for anything related to your pregnancy itself, consult your doctor or hebamme.

FAQ & Common Pitfalls

We're only a few weeks pregnant, isn't it too early to start looking for a hebamme?

In Frankfurt, no. Real accounts from the Frankfurt and Main-Taunus region describe the search as genuinely hard even for people who start early, one urbia.de thread from the area calls it an outright 'catastrophe,' with posters reporting that midwives affiliated with local Geburtshaus practices have effectively divided the region's postal codes among themselves, leaving families outside those zones with fewer options. Starting the day you get a positive test, rather than waiting for the standard end-of-first-trimester advice, gives you the most runway, especially since prenatal (Vorsorgehebamme) and postpartum (Nachsorgehebamme) capacity can each run out independently.

We're close to our due date, or already past it, and still don't have a midwife lined up for after the birth. What now?

This is exactly the situation Frankfurt built a dedicated answer for. The Frankfurter Wochenbett-Notversorgung, a free service funded by the Dr. Senckenbergische Stiftung together with the City of Frankfurt and running since September 2019, coordinates referrals specifically for families without postpartum (Nachsorge) coverage. Call 0160 99 20 72 71 during its phone hours, Monday to Friday 10:00 to 12:00, or use the online intake form on its website. It's worth being precise about what it does and doesn't cover: it addresses postpartum home visits and consultations, not a prenatal Vorsorgehebamme search, so if you're still pregnant, keep working the general platforms in parallel.

Do we need separate hebammen for pregnancy and for after the birth?

You can use the same one for both if she has capacity for it, but it's common not to, and worth planning for as two separate searches. The Vorsorgehebamme handles prenatal checkups, weight, blood pressure, urine tests, checking the baby's position, though not the ultrasounds themselves, those stay with your doctor. The Nachsorgehebamme handles postpartum home visits, up to twice a day through day 10 or 11, then tapering to a total of up to 16 visits through the 12th week, plus up to 8 additional breastfeeding-specific consultations after that if needed. If your prenatal hebamme doesn't have postpartum capacity, start that second search well before the birth.

What's a Beleghebamme, and do we need to arrange one?

Only if you specifically want a personal midwife present with you at the hospital during the birth itself, standard hebamme care doesn't include this. A Begleit-Beleghebamme personally accompanies you before, during, and after the birth, typically on call from around week 38, while a Dienst-Beleghebamme works hospital shift rotations without that personal continuity. The on-call fee for a Begleit-Beleghebamme runs roughly 700 to 1,200 euros depending on the region, and your Krankenkasse covers only around 250 euros of that, the rest comes out of pocket. Most families use standard hebamme care, which carries none of this cost.