The executive director of a pregnancy center in Wisconsin has delivered nearly 5,000 babies.
Dr. Lloyd Holm has been the executive director of Options for Women in River Falls, Wis., since March of this year.
Holm comes to the center with no prior experience with pregnancy centers, but he his understanding of pregnancy is more than proficient. Holm is a retired OB-GYN, making him unique among pregnancy center directors.
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Holm grew up in Michigan and attended medical school in Chicago followed by a seven-year stint in a family practice in Iowa.
In 1988, Holm said he took a “huge leap” and applied to the residency program for obstetrics/gynecology at the University of Nebraska. He finished in 1992.
Holm said his initial desire to study this line of medicine came from his childhood when he nearly lost his mother. She had had a placenta abruption and a stillbirth at 28 weeks. This tragedy had a profound impact on Holm. In 1959 his mom spent three to four weeks in the hospital recovering. Today, Holm said, such a recovery would only take four to five days.
Holm has served in several hospitals across the Midwest delivering babies.
“I just loved the sanctity of the patient/doctor relationship and my relationship with some of the fathers as well,” he said.
After Holm retired, he and his wife were out for a walk when she mentioned a woman in her prayer group had said the local pregnancy center needed an executive director.
“I remember thinking about how this current culture is in such moral decay,” he said, “I have strived my entire career to keep pregnancies intact. This notion that abortion is healthcare is laughable.”
When Holm reached out to the president of the board of directors at Options for Women, one of the first questions posed to Holm as a retired OB-GYN was whether he had conducted abortions.
“Absolutely not,” was the answer Holm gave.
He said he had worked for hospitals where he was able to opt out and “never regretted it.”
As a doctor he has had to have those discussions with patients who were not sure they wanted to continue their pregnancy.
“I had a few (abortion minded women) that I would see early on and who I would respond that I don’t perform them,” said Holm.
He said he would discuss the consequences with his patients and talk to them about adoption.
“That was my default position,” Holm said, adding during the bulk of his career while working in a rural setting, adoption was not uncommon.
Still, others followed through with their plans to abort.
“I would know it when they came back in,” Holm said. “I wish they hadn’t.”
But he said he shows grace with every patient.
Kirk Walden, former advancement specialist for Heartbeat International and veteran of the pregnancy help movement, said an executive director like Holm is a rare, valuable find.
“Having Lloyd in the pregnancy help community as an executive director gives us all new perspectives, and brings more credibility to not only his ministry, but to all of us,” Walden said. “It is great to have him on board.”
Tweet This: Having Holm as a pregnancy center director gives new perspectives and more credibility to his ministry and the pregnancy help community.
Despite his credentials and experience Holm is not letting his previous career command his new role at the center. He said his job is administrative and to lead the center. The medical staff do their job without Holm’s interference.
“I look at it this way,” he said. “My role as executive director is this; I have poured the foundation so that we can build.”
