I received some bad news involving a fabulous midwife here in Las Vegas.
In August, Certified Nurse Midwife April Kermani performed an emergency D&C on a postpartum mom who was hemorrhaging. She asked the nurse to page the back-up doctor. The bleeding was heavy and persistent and reached the point where she felt that waiting any longer would be unsafe and put the mother in danger. The D&C was outside her scope of privileges as defined by the hospital, but mother and baby are doing great. At the mother’s one-week postpartum visit, she brought in brownies and a thank you card for the “excellent care” she received.
On November 1, 2007, April Kermani met with the medical executive committee and heard that their decision is to permanently and immediately revoke her privileges at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals. This means that she can no longer attend births at the hospital.
There are limited options in the Las Vegas area for women who want to have a midwife attend their birth, yet still be in a hospital setting. The choices available here are hospital birth with an OB, or a home birth with a midwife. April Kermani was one of the rare opportunities for midwife-assisted hospital birth available to women. And she is one of the best. Her services are highly sought after by women in the community, many of whom travel from all corners of the Valley to birth with her at St. Rose. Her experience, coupled with the high quality of care she provides her clients has earned her the respect of birth professionals and birthing women alike.
If you are so moved, the officials at St. Rose need to know how much April Kermani means to the birthing community. Please write a personal letter describing your belief that midwife-assisted care in hospitals is necessary and important to women in Las Vegas.
To get started, please visit the Activism – Current Events page.
Thank you.
