NHS watchdog calls for more midwife-led births

"A competent home birth midwife" will be able to cope with complications during labour and will have the equipment to care for mother and baby, an independent midwife told Good Morning Britain.

Virginia Howes explained: "We carry the equipment and we're highly trained. We have drugs, we have resuscitation for both mother and baby."

Specialist midwife-led units which care for women giving birth are just "as safe as traditional labour wards", the NHS watchdog has said.

Christine Carson, clinical guideline programme director for Nice, said:

Healthy women in the midst of a straightforward pregnancy should be encouraged to give birth in a midwife-led unit instead of a hospital, experts at the NHS watchdog have said.

Read: Lack of midwives and funding 'risk safety of pregnant women'

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) also provisionally says a home birth for a low-risk pregnant woman who already has at least one child, could be as safe as hospital.

Midwives should discuss all options with the mothers-to-be in their care, Nice added.

The watchdog currently recommends that women should be given the choice of where they want to give birth, but urges caution if a home birth or delivery in a midwife-led unit is planned.

Almost three-quarters of a million (729,000) babies were born in England and Wales in 2012 - a rise of about 20% from 2002, Nice said.