XXXXXXXX HEALTH A PASSION TEXT BY LINDSAY KRUSE PHOTOS BY JOSH HARRELL for creation Kari Beadner serves local women as a labor doula 16 OC | SPRING/SUMMER 2017
Kari Beadner has a passion for creation. That love has blossomed into a full-fledged career for the 36-yearold <strong>Orange</strong> <strong>City</strong> resident. Beadner, a certified FertilityCare practitioner and labor doula and owner of <strong>Orange</strong> <strong>City</strong> FertilityCare Center, recently added another title to her resume — director of Guiding Star <strong>Orange</strong> <strong>City</strong>, which will hold its grand opening on March 2. However, these titles all are relatively new to the former admissions counselor at her alma mater, Simpson University in Redding, CA. Beadner and her husband, Aaron, left the Golden State behind in 2011, when Aaron became the director of student programs at Northwestern College. “I came without a job and this is what’s happened,” Kari Beadner said. She was 20 weeks pregnant with the couple’s first child, Abbey, at the time of the relocation. About six months after Abbey was born, Beadner began looking for a natural method of family planning. “The method I was using wasn’t effective during the breast-feeding time,” she said. She learned about the Creighton Model FertilityCare System through a seminar presented by former <strong>Orange</strong> <strong>City</strong> Area Health System doctor Harrison Hanson in 2012. The Creighton Model doesn’t require any drugs, surgery, artificial products or devices. Instead, it focuses on the woman externally observing her body to determine fertile and non-fertile days. By planning around the observations, the couple can determine the times to achieve or avoid pregnancy. “Even people with irregular cycles or during breast-feeding, when you’re in ovulatory and waiting for your fertility to return, this method can be used,” Beadner said. “We are about the whole aspect of life from conception to natural death, and that’s one of our biggest tenants: Every life should be respected and valued, no matter what part of the life that person is — the father, the mother, the baby." — KARI BEADNER CERTIFIED FERTILITYCARE PRACTITIONER, LABOR DOULA & OWNER OF ORANGE CITY FERTILITYCARE CENTER The couple agreed on implementing the system, but Hanson said they needed a FertilityCare instructor. At the time, Sioux County was void of options, and the closest teachers were located in Akron, Sioux <strong>City</strong> and Sioux Falls, SD. “With a little baby, I didn’t want to go, because the first four meetings are two weeks apart, and I thought it was so far and so sad that we had no one to teach it,” Beadner said. “That’s when I was like, ‘I know I can do this. I need a part-time job,’ and it’s turned into way more than that.” She began training and opened <strong>Orange</strong> <strong>City</strong> FertilityCare Center in October 2012. The next year, she completed the Creighton Model FertilityCare Practitioner Program at Pope Paul VI Institute for Human Reproduction in Omaha, NE. “It was a 13-month internship, and I started working with clients then,” she said. “Today, I’ve seen more than 150 clients and more than 80 conceptions.” After achieving pregnancy, one client asked Beadner if there were any labor doula services in the area. “I was like, ‘No, I don’t think so. As far as I know, from what I learned in my childbirth education class at the hospital, nurses are one-on-one here, so you don’t really need one,’” she said. That night, Beadner looked into the topic. “I started doing just a little bit of research, and I found that doulas actually give constant physical, emotional and informational support to families during the entire birthing process,” she said. “Doulas aren’t advocates; they actually just give the support that the family needs to be able to achieve the goals that they have, whether that be a natural birth, whether that be a medicated birth — anything.” Beadner was intrigued, and she completed an independent program through Childbirth International, receiving her labor doula certification in May 2016. “I’ve attended nine births so far, and I’ve got a few that are upcoming in the next SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | OC 17
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