How Many Midwives Do You Really Need?
Use this free FTE calculator to turn your gut feelings into clear numbers you can share with your team, board or health system partners.
Designing safe, sustainable staffing for a birth center is hard when all you have is “it feels busy” or “it seems slow.” As a labor & delivery nurse and former birth center operations manager, I built this FTE calculator specifically for midwifery‑led birth centers so you can make staffing decisions based on data, not guesswork.
What’s Inside
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Two staffing models in one tool
See your needs from both angles: a demand‑based model (how many hours of midwife time your care model requires) and a coverage‑based model (how many midwives it takes to reliably staff your schedule). -
Birth volume & visit inputs
Enter your annual births, clinic visits, and home/postpartum visits. The calculator converts them into total midwife hours needed for the year. -
Real‑world FTE math (not 2,080 hours)
Adjust for vacation, holidays, CE, sick time, and recovery after call so your “1.0 FTE” reflects what a healthy full‑time midwife can actually work. -
On‑call & clinic coverage logic
Map out your clinic hours and on‑call expectations (8, 12, 16, or 24‑hour models) and see how many FTEs you need to cover what you’ve promised. -
Full‑time vs part‑time scenarios
Compare all‑FT, FT+PT, and OT‑heavy strategies side by side, so you can see the tradeoffs in cost, flexibility, and burnout risk. -
At‑a‑glance summary
Get a simple summary you can screenshot or share: recommended midwife FTEs, staffing gap (over/under), and key assumptions you used.
How It Works
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Download the Excel file
Enter your email and you’ll get the link to the calculator. Make a copy of it to enter your own numbers. -
Enter your numbers
Birth volume, clinic hours, call model and non‑productive time. The spreadsheet does the rest. -
Review your results with your team
Use the output as a starting point for conversations about hiring, scheduling and sustainability.