In the UK for a healthy woman with a normal pregnancy (including women having their first baby) a planned homebirth is as safe as a hospital birth.
Springer, N.P. and Van Weel, C. (1996) Homebirth BMJ 313:1276-1277
Campbell, R. and Macfarlane, A. (1994) Where to be born? The debate and the evidence National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit 2nd Edition
Young, G., Hey, E., Macfarlane, A., McClandish, R., Campbell, R., Chamberlain, G. (2000) Choosing between home and hospital delivery BMJ 320:798

You can always transfer In if you are not happy at home, in many parts of the country there are services, which encourage women to decide in labour whether to stay at home or go in. These areas have had home birth rates of 75%!!

In 1996 the British Medical Journal published an unprecedented set of four research studies on Homebirth in the UK and other European Countries.
The overall conclusion of these research papers was that for low risk women, birth at home is safe
BMJ 1996; 313:130 2-6, 1306-9, 1309-13 and 1313-8

Women birthing at home are less likely to request pain relief, one study showed that planning a homebirth halved the incidence of both assisted delivery and caesarean birth
Chamberlain, G., Wraight, A. and Crowley, P. (eds.) (1997)Home Births: The Report of the 1994 Confidential Enquiry by the National Birthday Trust Fund Parthenon Publishing Group

In a 1994 study 65% of Mothers who birthed at home were still breastfeeding 6 weeks after the birth compared to 44% for hospital births