Home births dangers 'based on flawed data'

The benefits of home births are being played down in a "calculated" move by doctors, the general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives claimed.

Cathy Warwick said "flawed" evidence is being used to support claims that babies are more likely to die if not born in hospital. US academics have claimed home birth carry three times the risk that a baby could die.

Ms Warwick said midwives now "feel there is a concerted and calculated global attack against home birth which is being unfairly pilloried".

She told the Guardian: "There is no hard and fast guarantee that a woman will have a safer birth in a hospital than at home."