Pregnant women could benefit from improved standards of care, under plans to draw up new national guidelines on maternity services.

The changes will mean greater choice for women on where they give birth and the type of pain relief they receive.

The initiative was announced on Sunday by Health Secretary Alan Milburn at Labour's spring conference in Glasgow.

It follows revelations made last week that low care standards were to blame for 53% of baby deaths in England during labour and in the first six weeks of life.

The study, carried out by the EuroNatal Working Group, showed England had the worst results out of 10 European countries studied.

The task of drawing up the new national guidelines will be entrusted to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice).

Alan Milburn: Informed choice is imperative

Mr Milburn said: "I can announce today that I am asking Nice to draw up new national standards for maternity and post-natal services, so that women can make an informed choice about where and how their baby is delivered, between a home birth and a hospital birth, about what type of pain relief to have, how much midwife support to choose.

"Some women already exercise these choices. I now want to make them available to all.

"That's what I mean when I say choice in health care can bring greater equality to health care."