Dr. Christopher Stroud, United States

After attending Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, I began my medical career at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville. I then completed my OB/GYN residency at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. There, I met my wife, Marianne, and we married during my third year of residency. After residency, we moved to Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1995 to work for Beloit Clinic, a large multispecialty group practice. We chose Beloit because it was close to the University of Illinois Chicago, where my wife pursued graduate studies and earned a master's degree in nurse-midwifery. News of our first pregnancy and our desire to live closer to family brought us back south to Albany, Georgia, where Marianne and I practiced together from 1997 to 2006. During those busy years, Marianne and I had three wonderful children: Ian, Colin, and Mackenzie.

While in Albany, I became actively involved in the administrative side of medical practice and returned to graduate school at Auburn University to earn an MBA. When an opportunity arose to take a purely administrative role at Parkview Health System in Fort Wayne, Indiana, we decided to pursue it. I joined Parkview in 2006 as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. Although I missed caring for patients directly, I enjoyed the new challenges and responsibilities of medical administration. In 2008, I accepted a position with Aurora Medical Group, a division of Aurora Healthcare System in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While away from full-time clinical practice, I remained active in medicine by working with OB/GYN residents in Milwaukee and joining several medical missions to the Dominican Republic. It did not take long for me to realize that I was called to care for patients at the bedside rather than from behind a desk. Fortunately, Marianne agreed, and on January 1, 2011, we returned to full-time medical practice and to many good friends in Fort Wayne as part of Parkview Physicians Group (OB/GYN). I intended simply to practice obstetrics and gynecology as part of that large group. But God had other plans...

Before long, I was offering a different style and approach to obstetric care in the area. I was practicing as I always had, but this region was different, and many people took notice. Whenever possible, I preferred to deliver my own patients' babies rather than only when I was on call. I believed induction should be avoided unless there was a clear medical indication. I strongly felt it was wrong to expose mothers and babies to the risks of induction merely because of my work schedule or personal convenience. This made sense to me, but in January 2011 it was apparently an uncommon approach, and my practice began to grow. Growth continued through the rest of 2011 and 2012, but in the fall of 2012 everything changed. As a Catholic physician who had wrestled for years with ethical, theological, moral, and biological questions, I concluded that I could no longer prescribe artificial contraception, perform sterilization procedures, or recommend artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization. I therefore became a certified medical consultant in Creighton Model Fertility/NaProTechnology so I could offer my patients what I believed was a better option. I was certain this would end my practice. But God had other plans...

Only then did my practice begin to grow in ways I had never imagined. I began seeing patients from three states seeking care for fertility concerns and looking for a physician trained in Creighton Model Fertility/NaProTechnology. For every patient who left my practice because of my decision about contraception, three others came seeking help with fertility challenges. It was an extraordinary change that happened almost overnight. At the same time, increasing numbers of patients came to me hoping for a natural hospital birth. Most notably, the number of patients seeking a provider willing to work with them toward vaginal birth after cesarean, or "VBAC," rose sharply. In just three years, my practice had grown far beyond anything I had imagined—perhaps because I had little to do with it. It grew so quickly and became so large that Parkview Physicians Group could not keep pace. In May 2013, I decided that my unique patient population would be best served in an independent practice. After several months of prayerful consideration, Marianne and I opened Fertility and Midwifery Care Center, LLC, on September 2, 2014.

We love living in Fort Wayne and hope to remain here for generations. Our oldest son, Ian, married Genevieve. They are the parents of our first two grandchildren, Frances and Damian. Our next-oldest son, Colin, married Anne Marie, and they are the parents of our third grandchild, Magdalena.

Our oldest daughter, Mackenzie, began studying nursing at Ave Maria University and will complete her degree at Huntington University. She is the first of our children to follow the family profession as she works toward becoming a certified nurse-midwife. Mackenzie and her husband, Jordan, are the parents of our fourth grandchild, Titus. In the summer of 2016, after a difficult three-year journey filled with setbacks and joy, our two adopted children joined our family. Alima and Masalay currently attend Bishop Dwenger, where they are thriving.

Like most families, we are busy and divide our time among work, study, and recreation. We are members of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, where Marianne and I participate in several lay ministries. We are doing our best to live and raise our children in a world that often seems opposed to family life. Anyone engaged in that struggle knows it is nearly impossible—certainly impossible without God's help.

Fertility and Midwifery Care Center represents my effort to practice obstetrics and gynecology as simply and authentically as possible, without the constraints of ownership by or employment with a hospital or health system—only the direct relationship between provider and patient. My goal is not to see everyone, but to see anyone who needs the care I provide. I have certified nurse-midwives as practice partners because I believe obstetricians and nurse-midwives working together as a fully integrated team provide the best possible care for women and their families. Together, we can offer patients and families more than either of us could provide alone. This is an integrated model of care, and it is powerful for women and their families.

I hope that reading this has helped you get to know me, my family, and what brought us to this place at this time. I am honored that you are considering me as a partner in your healthcare journey, and I look forward to working with you toward your goals, whatever they may be.