Distinctly Montana Magazine

SPONSORED BY BILLINGS CLINIC Babies Begin in Billings Billings Clinic First in Montana to Offer In Vitro B rianne and Justin Bowers just wanted their daughter, Shaylee, to have the chance to be a big sister. That's how everything got started for one of the first couples to have a baby using in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment in Montana. On an unseasonably warm weekend in January, Brianne and Justin and their family traveled from northern Wyoming to Billings to meet Brianne's mom, who lives in Boze- man. They were celebrating Shaylee's eighth birthday at The Reef indoor water park. Brianne holds her three-month-old baby, Kenna, in her arms while she talks, "We are close to our families. My husband and I love having siblings and we wanted Shaylee to have a sister or brother. After Shaylee was two years old we decided to try for another child." Brianne, 26, and Justin, 32, tried getting pregnant for more than four years. Shaylee kept asking them for a baby, a little sister or a brother. "She would say, 'Mom, I wish you were pregnant,' and I told her we were working on it, but then it took so long. She didn't understand why it was easy for other people to have babies and so hard for us." They went to a couple of different ob/gyn doctors. Brianne was on Clomid (a fertility medication) for about a year. "Even though I didn't like being on Clo- mid because of the side effects, I wanted to keep trying. We didn't want to give up," says Brianne. After visiting several doctors, they discovered that Justin had male factor infertility. Research suggested that in vitro fertilization (IVF) would be the best treatment for them. Unfortunately, they also discov- ered that IVF was not available in Wyoming or Montana. (Prior to 2011, the only states that did not offer IVF were Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming.) "We decided that IVF wouldn't be feasible for us because it was too far away and too expensive. We didn't want to go away for weeks at a time, not seeing our daughter, and not being able to work," says Brianne. Then they found out from a friend that Dr. Christopher Montville was providing fertility care at Billings Clinic and would soon be offering IVF. "We were excited. The price was more af- fordable and we could just drive back and forth from our home in Lovell," Brianne says. "We also found out that Justin's insurance from his job would help us with fertility care, including IVF." "We came to Billings on Valentine's Day in 2011, spent the night, and my eggs were harvested the next day. Five days later we came to Billings to get an embryo transfer. They told me I had a great embryo DISTINCTLY MONTANA WOMAN 11 PREMIERE ISSUE • SPRING 2012

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