A new mother, Poli Marinova set out to find the best possible day-care provider for her infant son. She had little trouble finding a list of nearby caregivers, but she discovered there was no easy way to check their track records in Maryland.

The Maryland attorney general is stepping into a battle that's been brewing for more than three years regarding the idea of day care providers unionizing.

Many parents feel the strains of paying for child care, but such costs can be staggering for low-income workers, rivaling the rent or mortgage payment for the biggest chunk of the family budget.

Though a decision is still pending on a lawsuit to block an executive order by Gov. Martin O'Malley to allow for the unionization of child care, local providers are waiting for the ruling they feel could influence their profession.

About 80 percent of Maryland’s home-based child-care providers have voted to give themselves the right to join a union, leaders with the Service Employees International Union said this week.

Maryland's nearly 6,000 home-based child care providers have voted to form a union that they say will provide needed training and ensure better reimbursement rates.

By 2010, about 85 percent of the U.S. work force will consist of parents, and the number of working women will exceed that of working men, according to a study sponsored by the National Child Care Association.