While her decision to leave the world of academic medicine shocked some of her colleagues, Dr. Mirna Bowden has never regretted her choice to leave the south and head to the mountains of Northwest Montana.

Bowden has practiced as a gynecologist and obstetrician in Whitefish since 2002 after completing her internship and residency at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She attended the University of Miami School of Medicine and earned her undergraduate degree in history from Connecticut College in New London, Conn.

The Bowden family loves outdoor activities and the small-town atmosphere of Whitefish where people know not only their neighbors but nearly everyone in the community.

After almost a decade in the community, Dr. Bowden has delivered about 3,000 babies.

She sees many of those children and their families frequently by virtue of being out and about participating in community activities. She especially values the opportunity to see her patients in settings outside her office and seeing how their lives progress.

"I wanted to be in a small community where I knew the people I was taking care of," she said. "Whitefish was exactly what we were looking for. We really love the lifestyle here."

Skiing is a genuine passion for Bowden, her husband, Brett, and their twins, Scott and Abby, 8.

The Bowdens hit the slopes nearly every weekend during the winter. The twins began skiing at age 5 and mom says she now has trouble keeping up with them. Like many children, they're fearless on the slopes, she said.

Once the snow melts from the mountains, the family heads out for hiking and camping adventures.

Bowden and her daughter both ride horses as often as possible. She often schedules a long lunch break in order to slip away to the stables and ride.

Her staff is well aware of her love for horses. They block a little extra time into appointments with her horse-loving patients. "They know I'll be busy talking, so they just adjust the schedule," Bowden said.

"Getting out and riding is the thing that keeps me sane," she said.

Besides their family outdoor activities, her children participate in one sport every season and take karate lessons. "They keep me very busy," she said.

Her pride is evident as she speaks about her children. "They are good kids for the weird lifestyle their mom has."

When they were younger, they practiced "fire drills" for times their mom had to make an emergency run to the hospital. They'd get into their car seats and be ready to go, she recalled.

More than once, her children have gone on rounds with Dr. Bowden. She remembers the first time her toddler daughter saw a newborn baby.

"She asked me where the other one was," Bowden recalled. "They thought all babies came in twos." After explaining that most babies came just one at a time, Abby responded, "How lonely."

In addition to giving her children credit for being "good kids," Bowden praised her husband for his support of her career and his certainty that they'd work everything out when moving to Montana.

He essentially gave up his flying career to move to Whitefish. He separated from the Coast Guard where he had been a medical helicopter pilot. Brett now works as a network administrator.

Bowden was pregnant when the couple moved to Whitefish.

Five months after Bowden joined Dr. Randy Beach in his expanding practice at the Alpine Women's Center, Beach delivered Bowden's twins at North Valley Hospital. She now works with the nurses who cared for her during the birth of her twins.

Bowden has plenty of praise for North Valley Hospital, where she was the chief of staff from July 2009 until June 2010.

"It's a wonderful, personal hospital with a great medical staff. It's very special," she said.

Three years ago, she and Beach moved their medical office to a new building across the street from the hospital, a site they love working from.

"Sometimes, obstetricians have 20 seconds notice if there's a problem with a patient in delivery," she said. Being across the street, even though they were only about five minutes away at their old location, makes a big difference, she said.

Not only is Bowden's relationship with the hospital physically close, but the working relationship between doctors and hospital officials is solid. "The hospital is very open to listening to us," she said.

It's a tremendous advantage for physicians to work with a hospital that listens to doctors and responds to their needs, she said. "The day I showed up, they had what I'd asked for."

She's especially happy for her patients who get to use the hospital's "wonderful birth center." Five years ago, North Valley introduced its patients to water births and is the only Montana hospital with that option for mothers.

North Valley "is a family-friendly place to have a baby," she said. "Moms love it."

A lot of women in the Flathead Valley want either a home birth or at least a home-birth environment, she said, and they get that experience at North Valley Hospital.

One of the best trends in women's health care in the last 20 years has been low-intervention births, Bowden said. Not having a nurse take the baby away immediately and keeping the newborn in the room with mom makes sense, she said.

She and other doctors will help a woman deliver "in any position they like.

"Women find their way through birth. We're there to help them," she said. "That's becoming standard."

Bowden initially wanted to be a midwife, but she changed plans and attended medical school, choosing to specialize in obstetrics.

Bowden came to Whitefish with a laparoscopic surgery background. "Getting the da Vinci robot has been fun," she said. The da Vinci allows doctors to perform robot-assisted surgeries, which are less invasive procedures for the patients.

Bowden uses the da Vinci every week. "It has become the new normal way to do surgery," she said.

With a dedicated robotic surgery team at North Valley Hospital, the process has become very easy, she said.

Bowden said living and practicing medicine in Whitefish is "a rare privilege. I feel so lucky that I'm in this place, knowing my patients, seeing their families grow and transform, all at a hospital that that gives us great backing and technology.

"It's been such an adventure."

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.