Catholic Healthcare Education Center:

A Family’s Journey

“We’ve been married for 20 years this January,” the mother of seven begins. “Our oldest is 19, and our youngest is just nine months old.” Behind this simple introduction lies a story of incredible perseverance, faith, and eventually, the medical care that made a difference.

For this Catholic family, the journey toward completing their family was marked by both joy and profound loss. After having their first four children without complications—though their second child has severe disabilities—they began experiencing pregnancy losses. First two losses, followed by the birth of their daughter Amelia, then two more losses before welcoming daughter Maggie.

But the most difficult chapter was yet to come: six consecutive losses, several extending well into the second trimester.

“We are desperate for answers. If nothing else, just a reason why,” she recalls telling her doctors. “My physicians didn’t figure out why we were getting so far into pregnancy and then losing baby after baby after baby.”

Finding a Different Approach

Conventional medical approaches had failed to provide answers. “I had thyroid panels done. Everything was coming back normal. And nobody thought to look at my progesterone levels or anything like that,” she explains.

This frustration led her to research NaProTECHNOLOGY, a fertility approach that emphasizes working with a woman’s natural cycle and often includes progesterone supplementation during pregnancy. Through her research, she discovered “My Catholic Doctor,” a telehealth service that connects patients with physicians who practice medicine aligned with Catholic values.

“I started to look into NaProTECHNOLOGY because I know they’re huge advocates for progesterone through pregnancy,” she says. Finding a Catholic doctor felt right to her—”I’m Catholic. So I was like, okay, that’s a signal.”

A Team Approach to Care

Dr. Karen Dalton, her physician through My Catholic Doctor, took a comprehensive approach that the mother hadn’t experienced before. “She ran a whole bunch of tests, figured out that I’m low in this, this, and this, and started supplementing all that stuff.”

What made the experience unique wasn’t just the medical approach but the spiritual component. “The biggest help from her outside of all the lab work was just the amount of prayers that she put into each pregnancy,” the mother shares.

Dr. Dalton worked collaboratively with the patient’s local OB-GYN. “Dr. Dalton would relay messages to me like, ‘this is what we need your OB to run’ or ‘I can send the orders,'” she explains. Despite her local doctor being unfamiliar with some of the recommended treatments, he was open to the approach.

“He was like, ‘Whatever she wants us to do, that’s what we’re going to do. The end game is here,'” she recalls. “She suggested some stuff that my OB had never heard of, and he’s like, ‘That’s her jurisdiction.'”

This collaborative approach included maintaining progesterone supplementation much longer than conventional practice—until 34 weeks of pregnancy—as well as adding DHEA to balance hormone levels, an approach her local doctor hadn’t encountered before.

The Dignity of Life

Beyond the medical interventions, what stood out most was how Dr. Dalton addressed their losses. “Dr. Dalton prayed with me, prayed for me, offered up novenas, and didn’t talk to my husband and I in terms like ‘oh, the fetus, the fetus, the fetus.’ It was ‘the baby, the child of God.'”

This approach provided comfort during their grief. “When you’re mourning the loss of life, that’s a huge godsend to be talked to like your baby was there. To have those pro-life values was just comforting.”

The contrast with previous medical experiences was stark. “When we lost our first son in 2015, the coldness of the hospital and on-call physician… I was just like, I never want to do this again.” While she notes that care has improved and pregnancy loss is less taboo than it was even a decade ago, the difference in approach was meaningful.

The Gift of Answers

After working with Dr. Dalton, the family welcomed baby Sylvia, their seventh living child. The mother credits this success to thinking “outside the box” of conventional medicine.

“I don’t think we would have Sylvia if we didn’t start coming out of that box,” she reflects. “I know a lot of people kind of scoff at NaProTECHNOLOGY, like, ‘oh, well, that’s not real,’ but it truly is.”

When asked why she chose this path rather than pursuing options like IVF, her answer was simple: “Solely because I’m Catholic. It’s not aligned with my values.” She explains, “As much as my husband and I are open to life in welcoming more children and having so many heartbreaks… it just never came across [as an option] because it’s not morally sound. If it was God’s will, we were gonna try to have a baby without breaking morals.”

Medicine and Faith United

The story illustrates one of the core missions of My Catholic Doctor: uniting faith and modern medicine. At the heart of their approach is the belief that Christ is the ultimate healer, and their clinicians are called by Jesus to heal and help patients in their suffering. While suffering can lead people closer to Christ, My Catholic Doctor recognizes that modern medicine serves as a valuable tool in alleviating that suffering and providing compassionate care.

For this mother, the experience with Dr. Dalton was transformative. “Dr. Dalton was a blessing, and My Catholic Doctor made that possible,” she says. “Every time I talk to Dr. Dalton, it’s like, I just can’t thank you enough because she found answers that nobody else could find.”

Now, as she holds baby Sylvia, she has not just a child but something many parents who experience recurrent loss never receive: answers, hope, and a path forward that aligned with her deepest values.