Baby booming, moms blooming in Tulip town
By Joanne Fox Journal staff writer | Posted: Thursday, May 08, 2008
Dr. Lisa Shepherd is pictured giving an ultrasound to one of her OB/GYN patients, Lindsay Bahrke, who is also a nurse at the Orange City Health System hospital. (Staff photo by Tim Hynds)
ORANGE CITY, Iowa -- There may be a short supply of Mother's Day cards in this Sioux County community this year.
In February, 32 babies were born at Orange City Area Health System, setting a record. Nineteen more arrived in March, another 14 in April, and just last week, two sets of twins were born.
Families in northwest Iowa are discovering a personal kind of care in the town of 5,582 at a hospital that has a broad approach to fertility, pregnancy and childbirth, said Lisa Burg, marketing and public relations manager for the facility.
"We have a highly qualified staff of OB physicians and nurses, two practitioners who perform C-sections and two certified registered nurse anesthetists," she said. "We also do a variety of fertility studies and tests here that a lot of people don't know about."
Dr. Lisa Shepherd oversees those fertility tests and many have nothing to do with being "fertile."
"It's amazing how many challenges to conceiving I see that are outside fertility and easily addressed," she said. "For example, patients with tumors of the uterus, adrenal gland or pituitary can have those removed and allow conception to take place.
"We also find patients with thyroid dysfunction, insulin resistance or blood clotting problems that will eventually cause problems outside of infertility if not addressed."
Other factors that impact fertility are not as complex as most would imagine, Shepherd added. About 70 percent of the infertility challenges can be corrected.
"One of these challenges is weight gain. Excess weight can contribute to Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and difficulties with ovulation," she said. "Sometimes just losing the extra pounds can improve pregnancy rates."
Also, some women lead such frantic schedules that stress will inhibit conception. Turning one's life around can result in a success story, Shepherd said.
"When lifestyle changes aren't enough, ovulation and successful pregnancy rates can be improved with medications such as Metformin, Clomid or Progesterone supplementation," she added.
Many couples are waiting until later in life to start a family, causing age to also become a factor. Shepherd often sees women in their late 30s and early 40s who have tried for years to become pregnant, but some can be as young as 20-something.
Jennifer Elgersma and her husband Philip of Orange City decided to start their family, but ran into some difficulties.
"I went off birth control in July of 2005 and instantly had very irregular periods," Elgersma explained. "I would think 'I'm pregnant!' and then I would feel horrible when I wasn't."
Elgersma began taking her temperature every morning, checking for the spike that indicates ovulation, but there was no pattern in that, either.
"I knew something was wrong so I made an appointment with Dr. Shepherd in March of 2006," she said. "I know you're supposed to wait a year, but I couldn't wait because I knew something was going on."
Actually something was not going on. Elgersma said her hormone level was not reaching the level needed to ovulate. Shepherd also found multiple ovarian cysts. The medication Provera was first prescribed, then Clomid.
"I went in for a blood test and Dr. Shepherd called me and asked if I was sitting down. I wondered if I needed to, and that's when she said, 'Congratulations!' That was April 25, 2006," Elgersma said.
The couple's daughter was born Dec. 31, 2006, and Jennifer joked that they "were looking for that last tax credit" for the year. They named her Faith.
"It was deliberate," she stressed. "With our struggle to conceive, we just had to name her that. You have these expectations that you're going to get pregnant right away, and it's so disheartening when the months go by and you're not."
Elgersma credited her physician with helping to bring home healthy, happy Faith.
"Dr. Shepherd understood my concerns," she said. "She instantly took action, instead of saying, 'Just relax and keep trying.' I liked it that she was very pro-active in addressing my concerns."
Shepherd considered sports medicine following her undergraduate studies at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. The Nebraska native returned to her home state for medical school and residency and was awarded a Rural Health Care fellowship offering extra training in obstetrics, gynecology, surgery, intensive care and sports medicine. This allowed her to work one-on-one with obstetric and infertility specialists.
"I started to enjoy everything about it," said the 32-year-old mother of three. "It's great when people are trying so hard to become pregnant and then they do. It's very gratifying to help them."
The plus for the patient is that instead of driving hundreds of miles, individuals can start treatments such as progesterone supplementation and ovulation stimulation or obtain hysterosalpingograms (HSGs), semen analysis, follicle studies and laboratory analysis of fertility in Orange City, said Burg.
"We're not sure if our fertility services had anything to do with our recent baby boom," she admitted. "But it certainly has been active in our birth center this past year."
Anticipating continued growth, the Orange City hospital will be adding another surgeon and practicing OB physician this fall.
"It's great to see so many families choosing Orange City Area Health System as their obstetrical and medical home," said Shepherd, who with another surgeon also does C-sections. "Our group of physicians and nurses, coupled with a new facility, is attracting patients from miles away and we are honored to serve each one of them as they start a new -- or grow their existing -- family."
Testing, testing
Here are some of the tests that patients have available at the Orange City hospital:
-- TSH, a thyroid study
-- Prolactin, measures a hormone level in the brain
-- Semen analysis, analyzes sperm function
-- Pelvic ultrasound, looks for abnormalities in the uterus and ovaries
-- MTHFR, evaluates blood clotting problems which can result in miscarriages
In February, 32 babies were born at Orange City Area Health System, setting a record. Nineteen more arrived in March, another 14 in April, and just last week, two sets of twins were born.
Families in northwest Iowa are discovering a personal kind of care in the town of 5,582 at a hospital that has a broad approach to fertility, pregnancy and childbirth, said Lisa Burg, marketing and public relations manager for the facility.
"We have a highly qualified staff of OB physicians and nurses, two practitioners who perform C-sections and two certified registered nurse anesthetists," she said. "We also do a variety of fertility studies and tests here that a lot of people don't know about."
Dr. Lisa Shepherd oversees those fertility tests and many have nothing to do with being "fertile."
"It's amazing how many challenges to conceiving I see that are outside fertility and easily addressed," she said. "For example, patients with tumors of the uterus, adrenal gland or pituitary can have those removed and allow conception to take place.
"We also find patients with thyroid dysfunction, insulin resistance or blood clotting problems that will eventually cause problems outside of infertility if not addressed."
Other factors that impact fertility are not as complex as most would imagine, Shepherd added. About 70 percent of the infertility challenges can be corrected.
"One of these challenges is weight gain. Excess weight can contribute to Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and difficulties with ovulation," she said. "Sometimes just losing the extra pounds can improve pregnancy rates."
Also, some women lead such frantic schedules that stress will inhibit conception. Turning one's life around can result in a success story, Shepherd said.
"When lifestyle changes aren't enough, ovulation and successful pregnancy rates can be improved with medications such as Metformin, Clomid or Progesterone supplementation," she added.
Many couples are waiting until later in life to start a family, causing age to also become a factor. Shepherd often sees women in their late 30s and early 40s who have tried for years to become pregnant, but some can be as young as 20-something.
Jennifer Elgersma and her husband Philip of Orange City decided to start their family, but ran into some difficulties.
"I went off birth control in July of 2005 and instantly had very irregular periods," Elgersma explained. "I would think 'I'm pregnant!' and then I would feel horrible when I wasn't."
Elgersma began taking her temperature every morning, checking for the spike that indicates ovulation, but there was no pattern in that, either.
"I knew something was wrong so I made an appointment with Dr. Shepherd in March of 2006," she said. "I know you're supposed to wait a year, but I couldn't wait because I knew something was going on."
Actually something was not going on. Elgersma said her hormone level was not reaching the level needed to ovulate. Shepherd also found multiple ovarian cysts. The medication Provera was first prescribed, then Clomid.
"I went in for a blood test and Dr. Shepherd called me and asked if I was sitting down. I wondered if I needed to, and that's when she said, 'Congratulations!' That was April 25, 2006," Elgersma said.
The couple's daughter was born Dec. 31, 2006, and Jennifer joked that they "were looking for that last tax credit" for the year. They named her Faith.
"It was deliberate," she stressed. "With our struggle to conceive, we just had to name her that. You have these expectations that you're going to get pregnant right away, and it's so disheartening when the months go by and you're not."
Elgersma credited her physician with helping to bring home healthy, happy Faith.
"Dr. Shepherd understood my concerns," she said. "She instantly took action, instead of saying, 'Just relax and keep trying.' I liked it that she was very pro-active in addressing my concerns."
Shepherd considered sports medicine following her undergraduate studies at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. The Nebraska native returned to her home state for medical school and residency and was awarded a Rural Health Care fellowship offering extra training in obstetrics, gynecology, surgery, intensive care and sports medicine. This allowed her to work one-on-one with obstetric and infertility specialists.
"I started to enjoy everything about it," said the 32-year-old mother of three. "It's great when people are trying so hard to become pregnant and then they do. It's very gratifying to help them."
The plus for the patient is that instead of driving hundreds of miles, individuals can start treatments such as progesterone supplementation and ovulation stimulation or obtain hysterosalpingograms (HSGs), semen analysis, follicle studies and laboratory analysis of fertility in Orange City, said Burg.
"We're not sure if our fertility services had anything to do with our recent baby boom," she admitted. "But it certainly has been active in our birth center this past year."
Anticipating continued growth, the Orange City hospital will be adding another surgeon and practicing OB physician this fall.
"It's great to see so many families choosing Orange City Area Health System as their obstetrical and medical home," said Shepherd, who with another surgeon also does C-sections. "Our group of physicians and nurses, coupled with a new facility, is attracting patients from miles away and we are honored to serve each one of them as they start a new -- or grow their existing -- family."
Testing, testing
Here are some of the tests that patients have available at the Orange City hospital:
-- TSH, a thyroid study
-- Prolactin, measures a hormone level in the brain
-- Semen analysis, analyzes sperm function
-- Pelvic ultrasound, looks for abnormalities in the uterus and ovaries
-- MTHFR, evaluates blood clotting problems which can result in miscarriages
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thankful wrote on May 8, 2008 3:51 PM: