On Friday, March 26, and again on Monday, March 29, "Pink Slips" were given out to the Nurse Midwives at University Medical Center (UMC), in Las Vegas. Several are using up their vacation time that will end fairly soon and several will be able to continue to work until their contracts are up in June 2010.  With the demise of this midwifery service there will be only 2 Nurse Midwives in Southern Nevada and only one nurse midwife in central Nevada that are delivering babies.  I was the first Nurse Midwife hired through the School of Medicine to work in the community and do deliveries at University Medical Center.  I had been a Community Scholar through the School of Medicine Department of Rural Medicine.  I needed an urban or rural area to work in and started in the "Westside of Las Vegas" that is the historically African American area of Las Vegas.  This area had birth outcomes that were  2 1/2 the preterm labor, low birth rate, and infant mortality rate of the white population.  I was not the only midwife at UMC at the time.  There were 3 nurse midwives that had their own practice and had quite a large number of clients. I understand that there are approximately 25 nurse midwives currently in the state.  These are 25 women that could give complete and competent health care to women and serve our unserved/underserved communities.  If the five Nurse Midwives do not get employment soon they will be leaving our state. They will be missed by their fellow midwives and the women that they have served over the years.