LA CROSSE, Wis. (WEAU) – The Van Aukens welcomed their third child, a girl named Sophie on December 26th. Parents Courtney and Kurt say the holidays made preparing for Sophie’s arrival a little tricky.
“It’s been chaotic and busy but fun too. We have two other kiddos at home we tried to make the holidays as normal as possible for them,” says Courtney Van Auken.
“With others at home, there’s more to plan and more to worry about,” says Kurt Van Auken.
As of Friday morning, Sophie is one of the record setting 1,840 babies born at Gundersen Health System in 2024.
Gundersen officials credit greater staff education for labor and delivery nurses, as well as the overall care of nurses and doctors that allowed more families to choose Gundersen for this special time in their lives.
“We have maternal fetal medicine clinician here who provides care for our high-risk deliveries. We have the only local NICU around as well. I think patients just want to deliver where their baby can also stay if they have high medical complex needs,” says Gundersen clinical operations director Amy Frauenkron.
Gundersen Health System nurses have described this last year of baby deliveries as overwhelming, but in a good way.
“I just think that it’s so fun to be welcoming all these babies. It’s really exciting that all these families trust us to be there for such an exciting time. You never know how many people are going to be coming in the door, and how many birthdays we’re going to have in a day,” says Gundersen labor and delivery nurse Halle Brand.
Gundersen officials hope they’ll be able to set new baby records in the years to come.
“Our team has put in a lot of hard work and dedication to care for our patients. We’re so thankful that the community trusts us with this special time in their lives,” says Frauenkron.
The previous record of babies delivered for Gundersen was 1,776 set in 2021.
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Gundersen Health System has record number of births in 2024
