Three years ago, Senate President John Valentine cast the final and deciding vote on a heated bill that provided for licensing midwives for normal births.

"That was prophetic," the Orem Republican said Thursday as the two sides once again flung accusations about success rates of deliveries and under which circumstances direct-entry midwives could supervise a birth.

Senate Bill 93 is being sponsored by Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, who says that all she's doing is adding the World Health Organization's definition of normal birth to the code.

"The risks of something bad happening increase dramatically when there is a high-risk birth," she said.

But the bill has much harsher repercussions, opponents claim.

"We want to take normal, healthy, pregnant women. But under the definitions of this bill, it would put most of us out of practice," said Holly Richardson, a licensed direct-entry midwife.

Concerns in the bill include what constitutes high-risk pregnancy. For example, any woman who had a child born under 5 pounds 8 ounces or more than 9 pounds 14 ounces would not be able to use an LDEM.

Laura Lund will be eight months pregnant if and when the bill makes it through as written and becomes law. A genetic disorder in her family would make it impossible to have an LDEM deliver her baby, she said, even though she's successfully delivered at home before.

"I'm just a mom who would like to be able to give birth to my babies with the care provider of my choosing," she said.

On the other side was testimony from Angela Deneris, a certified nurse-midwife who works at the University of Utah. She said she's had two patients who had disastrous experiences with home birth and knows of situations where LDEMs were delivering breech babies, twins and for those who have previously had C-sections, all things that are often considered high risk.

The bill also removes one of the midwife positions on the state midwife board and adds three members who are either a licensed physician or certified nurse midwife. There is also one member of the public on the board.

Dayton's bill narrowly passed through committee 3-2 on Thursday morning, but not without admonition from committee chairman Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, to work out a compromise.

The two sides met later Thursday, though there are still serious differences.

"We need some time for each side to earn each other's respect," LDEM Suzanne Smith said afterward.

Valentine is willing to give them until the end of the session, saying he doesn't want this to come up next year. But Smith said it's going to be difficult for the two sides to come to a compromise in that short amount of time. In fact, the midwives would rather skip legislation entirely and solve the problem through their rules process that was set up in the 2005 legislation.

It was a move suggested by Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, in the Thursday morning meeting.

"It seems to me just because you didn't get what you wanted out of the rules process ... you're coming to the Legislature," he said of Dayton. "What was defective about the rules process that we have to dive into this?"

The two sides will meet again on Monday.

Senate Bill 93 Licensed Direct Entry Midwife Amendments

Sponsor: Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem

This bill would amend the Direct-entry Midwife Act.