At Luna, women stay in a homelike birthing room with healthcare provided by a midwife.
Dr. Kristel Schamber
7734 Excelsior Road N. Baxter, MN 56425 www.lakesareaeyecare.com (218) 829-2929 Dr. Brooke Fenstad
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“The bottom line is it gives women another option and accessibility in her childbirth experience,” Uban said. Uban began her career in midwifery at Lakewood Health Systems in Staples in 2011. In the nearly five years she spent there, a dream of establishing her own free-standing practice began to take shape, but she wasn’t sure how to make it happen. While at Lakewood, Uban connected with Shari Olson, an area business owner, nurse and consequently, one of Uban’s patients who shared her passion for women’s healthcare. After the birth of her youngest son, Olson joined Uban’s team as her nurse and the two continued to dream up what a birth center venture might look like. They attended a conference in Arizona to learn more. “We were so energized,” Olson recalled. “We just thought, ‘we are going to do this.’” In July of 2016, the dream quickly became a reality. The pair visited five properties before discovering a 120-year-old brick home on Gillis Avenue in Brainerd. “We walked through the front door and said, ‘this is it — this is the space,’” Uban said. The home turned birthing center, is full of old charm that Uban and Olson wanted to preserve while updating the space to be conducive of the breadth of the practice. In addition to childbirth, Luna provides other women’s health services, including annual gynecological visits, birthing classes, acupuncture, counseling for women’s health issues and preventative services. The main level has an open reception area, an open kitchen, and two exam rooms that feel more like a living room and an air of family-family, patient-first care. “From the moment they walk in here, we want our patients to feel right at home,” Uban said. The upstairs of the space has two birthing suites complete with big cozy beds, bathtubs for pain relief and water birth, private restrooms and all the medical equipment needed for a healthy, empowered birthing
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