A blueprint for safer maternity care that offers all women the choice to give birth where they want, with the support of the same midwife throughout pregnancy, labour and the early weeks of motherhood, will be launched on Tuesday.

The national maternity review will recommend that women must each have a personal maternity care budget to be spent on the NHS care they choose – whether they give birth in a midwife-run unit, a hospital or at home. Uncomplicated births cost the NHS around £3,000 each. A woman’s choice as to where and how she wants to give birth will determine how that money is spent, giving her a greater say than ever before in her care.

The independent review chaired by Julia Cumberlege was commissioned by NHS England in recognition that maternity services are not as safe as they could be and nor do they always give women the best possible experience of childbirth. It follows an investigation into the dysfunctional maternity unit at Furness hospital, part of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS foundation trust. A report in March last year found that failures in care may have played a part in the deaths of three mothers and 16 babies.

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The Cumberlege review finds, as did the Morecambe Bay investigation, that obstetricians and midwives are sometimes at odds. It recommends that they should train together, forging a better working relationship with greater understanding and respect for each other’s work.

Maternity services have never been safer, says the review – and yet there is huge variation around the country. Care Quality Commission inspections have rated 38% of maternity services either inadequate or requiring improvement. In some areas of England, four babies per 1,000 are either stillborn or die in the first week following birth, but in others that rises to 10 per thousand. A report last year found failures in care in half of a sample of 85 stillbirths they investigated in detail. There are more than 1,000 stillbirths a year in the UK.

“For the vast majority of women, giving birth and having a new member of the family is a really joyous occasion,” said Lady Cumberlege at the launch of the report. “But where things go wrong, it is devastating. It is a tragedy. It scars people for life.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Maternity services have never been safer, says the review – and yet there is huge variation around the country Photograph: Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi/The Guardian

The review reflects what Cumberlege and her team were told by women, she said. They wanted to be told their options and make their own decisions and they wanted continuity of care, with the same person looking after them throughout. The review recommends that midwives should work in small teams, of four or six, based in the community, who should get to know the woman and her family. One of the team would be the continuous carer from antenatal checks through to delivery, and then help with breastfeeding and caring for the baby later. If that midwife could not be there, there would be a “buddy” or deputy who would step in.

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Women wanted to use their smartphones or tablets to access information and advice about their pregnancy. “We in the UK really have to wake up to using technology. They [the women consulted by the review team] had an iPhone on which was their life, and yet we were still paper-driven,” said Cumberlege. Every woman should have a personal care plan, which must be updated if things change during her pregnancy, and they must have an electronic patient record which they themselves can access and add to, she said.

“We can’t guarantee that birth is 100% safe,” said Cumberlege. “It never will be.” But where things go wrong, the NHS needed to be open and learn from it. She recommended the Department of Health should seriously consider a system of “rapid resolution and redress” like the Swedish insurance model. Where there have been injuries, the family gets compensation from health insurers whether or not the harm was considered to be avoidable. Since it was introduced, avoidable serious birth injuries have fallen by 50% in seven years, says the review, which the Swedes attribute to greater transparency and trust between medical professionals who are not afraid of being held to account.

The report also underlines the need for greater support for women suffering mental ill health after the birth, which is being addressed by the mental health taskforce. Cumberlege said she wanted to see “real progress made” in the next five years. “In five years’ time we will be among the best in the world,” she said.

Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, said: “The independent review finds that quality and safety of NHS maternity services have improved substantially over the past decade, and most new mums tell us they are looked after well. But it rightly argues that the NHS could and should raise its game on personalised support for parents and their babies, better team working, better use of technology, and more joined up maternity and mental health services.”