A BOLTON midwife says new home birthing guidelines are to give women more choice – not to cut costs.

Catherine Owens, a consultant midwife at Royal Bolton Hospital, says the new National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) guidelines are a positive move for "low risk" pregnancies.

NICE has revealed that new evidence shows women who have had straightforward pregnancies are safer in labour when cared for by midwives – both in specialist birth centres, or equally in their own home.

Ms Owens said: "For us the new guidelines are really exciting. It focuses on our vision for midwife services by putting mothers at the centre of everything.

"It is nothing to do with not having people come into hospital or saving money. It's about choice for the mother.

"I have been a midwife for 20 years and it isn't like normal health care. It isn't about cutting costs at the risk of the safety of women and their babies."

Currently in Bolton one per cent of the 6,000 births are at performed at home.

Ms Owens said: "This does not sound like a lot but we are hoping to extend this service over time.

"But we would only recommend home births in low risk women. Most healthy women without any medical risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure or any mental and emotional problems are safe to birth at home.

"Other factors are that they are at least 37 weeks gone, no bleeding after 24 weeks or cardiac conditions, for example.

"Home births also lessen the need for interventions such as forceps and caesarean sections, which is better for the mother and her baby."

Women who opt for a home birth then change their mind can do so.

Ms Owens said: "First time mothers have a slight increase in wanting to transfer to hospital for an epidural, for example, but if they are well informed they are more relaxed and then that helps it become a better experience. But if the mother decided that she wants a hospital birth instead, she can change her mind.

"We are not going to force them to birth at home if they are low risk, we want to offer a range of birthing environments."

Elizabeth Duff, senior policy adviser at National Childbirth Trust, said: "This guidance is welcome as it should give more women the confidence to plan to give birth in a midwife-led unit or at home. These options are safe for most women and can offer benefits such as care from a known midwife and less intervention.

"Health commissioners should now put these guidelines into practice as soon as possible and make home and community birth a real, not just theoretical, option."