Health Committee heard our case today

Basically what this bill is, is a turf war. The Utah Medical Association does not like us taking our money somewhere else.

It was a total riot listening to Sen. McCoy(who supports us) ask the president of the UMA some really important questions that she didn't have any answers to, and she couldn't site her sources for the "horror" birth stories we were hearing. She basically could give no good reason why this issue is being brought up again. The thing that bugs the UMA is that we have numbers and statistics that favor us. Our numbers reflect that not one baby has died under the care of midwife, then the UMA president went on to admit that there's atleast one infant death per week at St. Marks(nothing against St. Marks, they're a very "birth naturally" friendly hospital). Duh! Not such a smart thing to say to the committee.

The whole committee was totally bugged that this issue is still on the table. The Utah Midwives Association is supposed to meet with the UMA over this bill and make some more compromises. If they don't find a way to compromise with us they'll be loosing their credibility with this bill.

Unfortunately, the bill passed out of committee and is now headed to the senate floor. So I'll be going back up to the capitol with my fellow homebirthers and midwives to talk more to our reps. And we'll let the UMA keep digging themselves a very large hole.