Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus spoke out in favor of improving maternity leave for the self-employed. "Equal treatment between the self-employed and employees is not easy. But it must also be possible for the self-employed to start a family without too many obstacles," said the Greens politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group. "Therefore, we should also allow freelance work for the self-employed." Paus did not go into further detail.

The Maternity Protection Act, which provides for protection periods before and after childbirth and income security during the employment ban, has not yet applied to pregnant and breastfeeding women who work exclusively independently.

Since 2017, self-employed women with private daily sickness allowance insurance have been entitled to payment of the agreed daily sickness allowance during the maternity protection periods. As can be read on the Ministry's family portal, self-employed persons who are voluntarily insured with a statutory health insurance company receive maternity benefit in the amount of the sickness benefit from the health insurance company during the maternity protection periods. The decisive factor here is that the entitlement to sick pay is also secured.