Hardin County

Midwife Aims to Open First Alternative Birthing Center in Kentucky

Lisa Autry — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 14:05:23 +0000

Mary Carol Akers looks in the trunk of her car before she leaves for work to make sure she has all the necessary tools for her job.

"You can see the oxygen tank, medications. I've got catheter kits and IVs, anything mother and baby might need," she says.

Akers makes a lot of house calls. She is a certified midwife serving Hardin and surrounding counties in central Kentucky. The retired Army lieutenant colonel has delivered babies at military hospitals throughout the world, and over the course of her career, she estimates she has delivered six thousand babies.

In the car with Akers on her way to a house call, she explains why some women choose not to give birth at a hospital.

"I think that one of the things about birth centers and midwifery is high touch and low tech, and high touch and low tech require a lot more work than putting them on the monitor and going to the desk to watch it from there," explains Akers. "I've also seen women go to the hospital with a birth plan in mind and be bullied out of it."

Feds: Trucking Company Satisfactory Before Deadly I-65 Crash

Associated Press — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:48:14 +0000

A Michigan trucking company involved in a crash that left six people dead on Interstate 65 in Central Kentucky over the weekend had a satisfactory rating from the federal agency that oversees long-haul carriers.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration based its ranking of Highway Star Inc. on a 24-month span when the company fell below the national average of vehicle problems.

A tractor-trailer driven by Ibrahim Fetic, 47, of Troy, Mich., hit an SUV carrying a family back to Wisconsin from a vacation in Florida on Saturday. Fetic and two children in the SUV survived the crash.

The wreck set off a four-vehicle collision on the other side of the interstate. Police said Gregg Lohman, 36, the drummer for country music singer Kellie Pickler, remained hospitalized Monday.

Kellie Pickler's Drummer One of the Injured in Weekend Crashes on I-65 in Hardin County

Associated Press — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:45:22 +0000

The drummer for country music star Kellie Pickler has been identified as one of the people hospitalized in two crashes along Interstate 65 in southern Hardin County.

Pickler's manager, Larry Fitzgerald, said Gregg Lohman suffered serious injuries in the wreck Saturday.

University of Louisville Hospital spokesman David McArthur said Lohman remained there in serious condition Sunday.

State troopers have said a collision between a tractor-trailer and an SUV headed north started a fire that slowed traffic on both sides of the interstate Saturday. Troopers have said the wrecks on the southbound lane were likely caused by people slowing to look at the initial crash.

Hearing Set for Proposed Hardin County Birthing Center

Associated Press — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 23:09:09 +0000

A certified nurse midwife in central Kentucky has applied to open the first alternative birthing center in the state.

Mary Carol Akers told The News Enterprise that she thinks women in Kentucky should have more birthing options and has applied to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family for a certificate of need in order to build and operate the Visitation Birth and Family Wellness Center in Elizabethtown.

The certificate is required to safeguard against having too many health care facilities.

Cabinet spokeswoman Beth Fisher says there are no other alternative birthing centers licensed in the state.

"I want you to know that women deserve another option," Akers said.

WKU Expands MBA Program to Elizabethtown

Lisa Autry — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 21:02:49 +0000

Starting this fall, WKU’s Elizabethtown campus will offer a Masters of Business Administration. Students will be able to choose from three tracks: the full-time, online, or professional MBA.

The Professional MBA was created to meet the scheduling needs of busy adults by meeting on alternate Saturdays for two years. The program is open to professionals, business owners, and managers with five years of experience.

WKU’s PMBA program recently placed in the top 5 percent nationally on the standardized exit exam for graduates of MBA programs.

“This top ranking proves that we have an excellent faculty, an applied curriculum, and a cohort program that works,” said Bob Hatfield, associate dean of WKU's Gordon Ford College of Business.