Staff Bio Series: Dr. Celeste Holstein

My name is Celeste Holstein and I am Dr. Frank's daughter. Dad says he knew I would be a healer of some kind from a very young age. I was always the child that knew if the dog was sick or if our goldfish was going to die. I was also the child that couldn't be told what to do, and my dad understood that and never pushed me toward chiropractic. I always knew I was going to be a doctor, but what kind was to be determined.

I decided to go into pre-med with the goal of being an OBGYN. I wanted to change the way birth happened in the hospital. While I was at New College we had a midwife give a lecture and she talked about how managed care and malpractice were making the OBGYN's in town all retire because they could no longer practice evidence based medicine and their hands were tied by insurance or hospital policy. She talked about how the midwife model of care was much different than the medical model. Midwives believed that birth was natural and a woman's body was made with the wisdom to birth. It was a light bulb moment for me! It sounded a bit like...<gasp> what chiropractic philosophy says about the body!

I immediately decided to transfer schools to become a nurse midwife. Nothing worked, transcripts were lost, the program was full, etc. While I tried to trudge through I started working with Dad in the office therapy department. I remember spending a lot of time with a few new car accident patients who were in serious pain, out of it, grumpy, maybe even a bit rude. Over 2 months time I saw these people transform into happy, bright, grateful people as they healed. I realized maybe I never knew what Dad was doing in his office in the first place. I immediately asked that he hire someone to do my job, and move me in as his transcriptionist so I could watch what  he was doing. I was immediately bitten by the chiropractic bug.

I changed my major back to pre-med at USF and things flowed beautifully. I graduated with my biology degree and went straight to Life University, dad's Alma Mater. I worked hard, learned everything I could because I wanted to be the best doctor I could, and before I knew it, it was graduation time and the Dean was on the phone telling me to write my Valedictorian speech.

How does this whole story come full circle? Chiropractic philosophy says that the body has the ability to heal itself if we just remove the interference. Our goal is to allow the body communicate optimally from brain to body. No time is this more important than we are growing a new human! The pregnant body undergoes enormous change through gestation and quite a bit of that anatomical and biomechanical change happens to the spine. This is precisely why so many midwives advocate chiropractic care for their patients. Through better spinal and pelvic alignment there are often
easier pregnancies, shorter deliveries with less need for intervention, and less stress put on babies during delivery.

My initial desire to help moms achieve more natural births has been met, just on a different path than I originally expected. Now I see pregnant women from preconception through their deliveries and into their aftercare as a chiropractor. Of course, I also see their newborns and their grandparents as well, but prenatal care will always hold a special place in my heart!

Celeste Holstein, D.C.