Coming North: New OB/GYN settles in at Mat-Su Women’s Health Specialists

5/28/2020

Dr. Christy South still clearly remembers one of the defining moments in the beginning of her career as an obstetrics and gynecology specialist. During a residency rotation at St. Joseph Campus she was working with a couple in their mid-forties who were experiencing their first and long-awaited baby.

An ultrasound showed the baby had an anencephaly, a non-viable condition that keeps the top of the brain or skull from growing. Despite being offered a termination of the pregnancy at another non-Catholic facility, the couple decided to go to full-term. When their baby boy was born months later, South was astounded by the way the couple had created something positive out of a distressing condition.   

“They loved that baby. And in the meantime, during her labor progress, they told me that they had started a support group for parents such as themselves,” South said.

For South, the experience set the foundation for her philosophy of care as a provider.

“From the science side of it we’re taught that this is a non-viable condition. It’s a horrendous experience for the family,” South said. “[This couple] took a very awful situation and turned it into a wonderful positive...there’s always a positive side to it, and sometimes it may not be the family that sees it but us as providers, I think it’s our obligation to try to find [it].”

Originally an eastern Tennessee native, South has been serving the Matanuska Valley at Mat-Su Women’s Health Specialists since September of 2019. She attended medical school at Quillen College of Medicine before moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for residency in 2004. South is a board-certified OB/GYN and a certified health coach. 

“I always knew that I wanted to be a physician and my dad told me it was because I always thought I was a boss, from the wee age,” she said.

Her professional specialties include minimally invasive surgeries using robotics technology, pelvic floor reconstruction and treatments for urinary incontinence. South has logged 280 cases using the da Vinci robot since she started with it in 2015 and now does most of her gynecologic surgeries with this technology. 

“It truly is a lot less pain and a lot less complication rate,” she said of the robotic procedures.

South believes her greatest strength as a provider is her ability to connect with patients. She avoids bringing a laptop with her into an exam room and instead focuses on having a one-on-one conversation in a consultation.

“I really want to hear what they think is the problem before I start putting numbers and tests and stuff like that to it,” she said. 

That connection that helps her develop relationships with patients is one of her favorite things about the field of obstetrics and gynecology. Many times a general surgeon will see a patient for a procedure once and then never see them again, but South loves the continuity that she experiences with her patients over time through the course of annual exams, pregnancies and surgeries.

“There’s an intimacy there that you have to be comfortable with and once you have that connection, a lot of ladies just don’t want to break it,” she said. 

South has been married to her husband Barry since 1996 and they have three children: Caleb, Thomas and Ellie, and an additional four dogs and a bearded dragon. Her family owns a whitetail deer farm in Kentucky where they maintain a trophy breeding and hunting operation. In her free time, South loves crafting, knitting, sewing, scrapbooking, hiking, fishing, hunting, running, gardening, canning and reading.

Mat-Su Women's Health Specialists cares for women at every age and stage of life. They provide women’s wellness services, including annual women’s health exams, prenatal care, menopause treatment, high-risk pregnancy care and delivery. Make an appointment with Dr. Christy South or another Mat-Su Women’s Health Specialists provider by calling (907) 746-7747, or schedule your appointment online at matsuwomenshealth.com.

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