Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that all pregnant women are given the opportunity to choose to give birth at home.

We are committed to providing choice within safe maternity services.

The NHS Choice Framework for 2016-17 sets out the choices of place of birth. When a woman gives birth they should have the choice to do so:

- at home, with the support of a midwife;

- in a midwife-led facility (for example, a local midwife-led unit in a hospital or birth centre), with the support of a midwife;

- in hospital with the support of a maternity team. This type of care will be the safest option for some women and their babies.

The Choice Framework states that choice in maternity is not a legal right. The exact nature of the available choice will depend on what is best for a woman and her baby, and the services available.

NHS England has identified a number of clinical commissioning groups (CCG) to act as Maternity Choice and Personalisation pioneers to test ways of improving choice and personalisation for women accessing maternity services as recommended by Better Births, the report of the National Maternity Review.

All of the Pioneers will seek to deepen as well as widen the choices available to women across CCG boundaries, by attracting new providers into their areas and by empowering women to take control in decisions about the care they receive to meet their needs and preferences, including the opportunity to give birth at home.

NHS England and other national partners will support and work with the Pioneers to develop and test new approaches, and determine those suitable for promotion and adoption across England.