Objective To investigate and analyze the task of midwives and obstetric nurses in Shanghai, and to provide reference for higher education program. Methods A total of 503 midwives and obstetric nurses from Shanghai were recruited to complete the self-designed questionnaire in terms of the frequency of tasks. Results The highest task in frequency was ‘measure and judge abnormalities of heart rates, blood pressure and body weight of the pregnancy’ in obstetric clinic (71.7%), ‘evaluate cervical dilatation’ in labor room (96.3%), and ‘care of perineal wounds’ in post-labor ward (93.4%). The task with high mean score indicating that was performed by the other professionals was ‘participate in multidisciplinary consultation for pregnancy with difficult, complicated or critical illness’ in obstetric clinic, ‘repair stage 4 perineal/vaginal lacerations’ in labor room, and ‘provide psychological interventions and referral for puerpera and family with mental disorders’ in post-labor ward. Conclusion Task of job description in obstetrics shows ladder-like feature that the tasks with high frequency are general practice and those performed by senior professionals are unclear for medical and nursing personnel. High-level midwifery education should be taken following the direction of advanced obstetric practice and ladder-like feature of obstetric tasks to cultivate higher midwifery talents.