Dr. Robert Chalmers, OB/GYN

My name is Robert Chalmers, and I practice High Risk and OB/GYN and Infertility here in St. George at Dixie Regional Medial Center.

I took some classes in high school that exposed me to sciences, exposed me to anatomy and physiology, and I was fascinated. It was definitely where I found my passion. When I went to medical school, I was certain I'd want to be a pediatrician, and had made all of my plans in that regard. I'd made friends in the pediatric department, and thought for sure that's what I wanted to be. But when it came to actually the practice of pediatrics, I found it a little monotonous, and I liked the excitement of OB/GYN. It was very rewarding. You get into these relationships with your patients, and with your families, that ends up being lifelong for many. You get a lot of continuity of care, and there's nothing as fun in medicine as being in the delivery room.

One of the things about medicine is that most of the times people come to you because they're sick or something sad has occurred. They've had an injury or accident or long term illness. In OB/GYN we are very fortunate where we get to take care of mostly healthy patients who have something happy happening in their lives. So they're having a child, they're excited about that. There's very few times you get to deal with people at the happiest moments in their lives, and it's usually when they have babies, and doing obstetrics we get to enjoy that moment with them.

One of the things I enjoy the most is you get to take care of people throughout their entire lifespan. Often times, women will come in for their first visit very young in their life for issues, they come in to obviously have their babies. At some point in their life we take care of them through their menopausal period. We take care of them essentially at all points in their lives so the relationships get quite strong.

The other thing I like about it is there is never a dull moment in OB/GYN. You never know what's going to happen when you wake up. Everyday is not mundane, and I like that. I like the excitement. I like not knowing what the day will hold for me.

My most enjoyable patient experiences come from patients who come to me for infertility therapy and aren't having success in conceiving, and we help them, and they are able to conceive, and I'm able to deliver their baby. To see them have success at becoming pregnant, to see that pregnancy through, and to be able to deliver that baby, that experience to me is the most rewarding.