More mothers-to-be should have babies at home or in midwife clinics and no longer assume they will have a hospital birth, the country’s leading medical professionals said today.

Dozens of maternity units should be merged or downgraded, according to the report published by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

The college is calling for a radical rethink of how women are treated by the NHS. Medical experts are demanding a reorganisation of women’s healthcare and claim a reduction in maternity units at hospitals will allow specialist care to be concentrated on the mothers who need it the most.

Anthony Falconer, college president, claimed politicians had a “moral imperative” to make the case for national reform. Official figures show another rise in birth rates, with 723,165 babies born in England and Wales last year – 22 per cent more than a decade ago.

Dr Falconer said the current maternity system was “not acceptable nor sustainable” and argued that women should no longer think of hospital as the default option when giving birth.

“Roughly a third of women need doctors, roughly a third need midwives, roughly a third might need both,” he said.

“There is a perception among patients that they still see the hospital birth as the safer option.”

Figures show that fewer than 10 per cent of women give birth at home or in midwife-led clinics at present.

Under the plan by the college, maternity care would be reorganised into “networks”, similar to how cancer services are organised.

Women would be sent to hospital, or directed towards the community or specialist services depending on their needs. College vice-president David Richmond, who wrote the report, said that healthy women with a low risk of complications would be able to have a baby in a midwife-led clinic “without a doctor going anywhere near them”.

The Department of Health said it would “carefully consider” the recommendations.