All expectant mothers will be offered the choice of giving birth at home under new guidance to be issued this week.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) will say that all women should be given statistics about the risks and benefits of having a home birth.

Supporters of natural childbirth welcomed the decision, saying that since the 1970s a policy encouraging women to opt for hospital birth meant that fewer than 5% of babies were born at home.

Midwives say up to 60% of women could have birth at home with no ill effects, or in birthing centres staffed by midwives.

Belinda Phipps, of the National Childbirth Trust, said: “This is a helpful departure because home births and births in midwifery units follow a more normal physiological process. For the vast majority of women, giving birth is a normal process, not a medical situation.”

Mervi Jokinen, the practice and standards development adviser for the Royal College of Midwives, said the guidelines will at last give women a genuine choice about where to give birth. “At the moment some doctors do not give women a range of choices,” she said.

Nice is responsible for determining what should be offered on the NHS. The guidelines are expected to say that women should be told that a home birth may carry a slightly higher chance of their baby dying in childbirth than if they chose to give birth in hospital. However, it will state that the evidence is not conclusive.

Women will also be told that, with a home birth, they have a higher chance of giving birth naturally and are less likely to have a caesarean section. Women giving birth at home are also less likely to suffer internal damage.

The guidelines are also likely to say, however, that up to 20% of women who plan to give birth at home are likely to face complications during labour which will force them to transfer to an obstetric unit. When complications do arise during a home birth, the outcome of serious complications is likely to be worse than if the woman had chosen to give birth in an obstetric unit.

Nice will acknowledge that there is currently a shortage of reliable research comparing the safety and benefits of home births and hospital births in the NHS. It is expected to recommend that a national monitoring scheme be set up to compare the different options.

The Nice guidelines will implement a promise made by the Department of Health in April that by the end of 2009 all women will be given a choice about where they give birth. They will also be guaranteed a named midwife to care for them throughout their pregnancy. When the midwife goes on holiday she will be obliged to introduce a replacement.

The DoH has also promised that, in two years’ time, women will have one-to-one care during labour by a midwife, backed up by a new, less qualified grade of staff.

The shake-up to maternity services follows government research showing that thousands of women feel abandoned and scared during childbirth in NHS hospitals. A survey of almost 5,000 mothers found that 20% felt they had been left unsupported during labour.

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