The head of the Royal College of Midwives has condemned what she called a calculated campaign against home births intended to scare women into believing it was unsafe.

Maternity services in the NHS were "embedded in a medicalised culture", meaning many women did not realise a home birth was a viable option, Cathy Warwick, general secretary of the organisation, said in a new year message.

Speaking later on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Warwick said many UK obstetricians and gynaecologists favoured the option of home birth. Asked who was spreading the anti-home birth message, she said: "Researchers from across the world, who seem to be collaborating with the media … publishing studies which suggest home birth is not safe and give the impression that hospital birth, on the other hand, is completely safe."

These studies often used false comparisons between different countries to reach scaremongering conclusions, she said. "The fact of the matter is that home birth in the UK is a very different concept to a country like America. Midwives in the UK are highly trained, highly competent and very able to relate to obstetricians – who actually support home birth in the UK."

While home birth was not suitable for every pregnancy, it should be an option, she said. "Women should speak to midwives, should ask them about the evidence relating to their own circumstances and should make an informed choice."

Warwick, who heads the body that represents 38,000 midwives in Britain, made a similar argument in August after a paper by US academics claimed a home birth carried three times the risk that a baby would die. The study prompted an editorial in the Lancet medical journal arguing that "women have the right to choose how and where to give birth, but they do not have the right to put their baby at risk".

At the time, Warwick described the Lancet piece as "sweeping and misogynistic".

In her new year statement, Warwick said her organisation was not sure about the government's position on home births "or whether they are honouring their pre-election promises for adequately staffed maternity services for 3,000 more midwives".

She continued: "To begin providing more home births, there needs to be a seismic shift in the way maternity services are organised. The NHS is simply not prepared to meet the potential demand for home births because we are still embedded in a medicalised culture.

"The recently reported drop in the home birth rate in England from 2.9 % in 2008 to 2.7% in 2009 is a real disappointment."

The total percentage of home births in the UK is around 2.4%, ranging from 4% in Wales to just 0.4% in Northern Ireland.