June 5, 2023

The state’s first midwife-owned birth center welcomed 40 infants in its first year — and the coming location promises to be even busier.

Flourish Wellness & Birth Co. concluded its first year in business at the end of May, and now the nurse-midwives who own it are planning for a new location.

To accommodate their growth and make room for new services, sisters Sarah Roe and Erin Vande Lune have begun renovating a facility that they expect to move into late this summer or early this fall.

Currently, Flourish is sharing space with Journey Orthodontics at 520 N. Sycamore Ave. It soon will occupy about 7,000 square feet at 2908 E. 26th St. in the former Core Orthopedics & Sports Medicine building.

The building recently was purchased by Jordan Hartshorn, who has turned it into the corporate headquarters for his McDonald’s restaurants. Hartshorn’s offices are on the upper level. Flourish will occupy about 4,000 square feet of the main floor’s eastern side and about 3,000 square feet on the lower level.

Bender Commercial Real Estate Services represented both sides of the transaction, with Bobbie Tibbetts acting for Hartshorn and Rob Kurtenbach assisting Roe and Vande Lune in finding the property.

“It’s a great setup for Flourish, a great spot,” Kurtenbach said. “It sets them up for future growth.”

When Roe and Vande Lune started Flourish last year, they had offices in downtown Sioux Falls but were looking for a permanent location. The Core building was considered, but instead they settled for a smaller facility.

In the months since then, the birthing center has — in keeping with the name — flourished.

“We are definitely getting more busy,” Roe said. “When we first started Flourish, it was strictly women’s health, prenatal care and postpartum.”

Now, Flourish offers health care such as hormone observation and has an increased focus on health optimization and finding the root cause of symptoms. A nurse practitioner focuses on children’s health care.

“We had clients coming into care to deliver with us who said, ‘This is so great; I wish you could keep seeing our kiddos,’” Roe said. “Or ‘Where can I go for more functional wellness for our kids or whole family?’ We were seeing a need, so we started praying over it, and the Lord was calling us to expand.”

The sisters, who are certified nurse midwives, didn’t anticipate that Flourish would become an integrated wellness clinic when they founded it. Roe and Vande Lune, Lennox natives who trained first as registered nurses, took midwifery classes together through Frontier Nursing University in Versailles, Kentucky. It is the nation’s oldest midwifery school.

It wasn’t until recent weeks that the vision for the move into the 26th Street building came together, Vande Lune said. “Now, we have decided it’s a fiscally responsible building and one that meets our needs,” she said.

The two birthing suites will be on the lower level and will need only light renovation. The main floor has been completely gutted. The current clinic space does not have a birthing room. Flourish has a one-room birthing suite just south of Sioux Falls as well as a home-birth option.

Mothers and infants do not stay overnight. Typically, families leave six hours after delivery, and staff members follow up in the new parents’ home the next day.

“Our highly experienced staff is well trained in birth and managing complications while awaiting hospital transfer if necessary,” Roe said.

The hospital facility is chosen early in pregnancy, so records can be transferred and continuity of care prioritized.

When Flourish moves to its new location, Roe and Vande Lune will be able to continue to move women’s health care “outside the box,” they said.

“Our model from the very beginning has been to create a space where people can be seen, known and heard,” Roe said. “We make it a priority here to spend time with our clients and really get to the root cause of the issues they’re having, a treatment plan that’s individualized and best for them. And people know they can be an active participant in their health care.”

New birth center aims for ‘middle ground’ between hospital, home birth