Both statements are gross falsehoods. Here is a quote from Care in Normal Birth: A Practical Guide, which is published by the WHO:

So where then should a woman give birth? It is safe to say that a woman should give birth in a place she feels is safe, and at the most peripheral level at which appropriate care is feasible and safe (FIGO 1992 [FIGO is the international Ob/Gyns professional organization]). For a low-risk pregnant woman this can be at home, at a small maternity clinic or birth centre in town . . . (p. 12)

World Health Organization. Care in Normal Birth: A Practical Guide. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1996.

And here is a quote from Sheila Kitzinger, writing in this year's March issue of Birth:

In September 2007 the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued clinical guidelines on intrapartum care of healthy women and their babies during childbirth. Under "key priorities" it stated: "Women should be offered the choice of planning birth at home, in a midwife-led unit or in an obstetric unit." Information suggests that for "women who plan to give birth at home or in a midwife-led unit there is a higher likelihood of a normal birth, with less intervention" (p. 77).

Kitzinger K. Letter from Europe: home birth reborn. Birth 2008;35(1):77-8.

As for the canard that U.S. direct-entry midwives are poorly trained, a perusal of the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) website gives the lie to that.

-- Henci