DALLAS -- Weight loss surgery has given better health to thousands of people.

Now, it's also giving hope to women struggling with infertility.

Baby Claudia Joy - a pink bundle - is more than beginning a new family for Brittany Turner.

She is the end to six years of failure.

"I had lost hope on getting pregnant," said Turner.

"It's just hard waiting. That's the hard part."

What makes it harder for this 31-year-old is each physician she saw over the years all suggested the same thing to get pregnant.

"Every doctor, that was their first recommendation to me, try losing weight," she said.

For Turner, the 100 pounds that needed to go, seemed too daunting.

In the United States, 30 percent of reproductive age women are obese. Those women, according to one study, are 40 percent less likely to get pregnant.

"Makes it harder to get pregnant because your ovary doesn't function as well. Makes it harder to get pregnant because any medication you take to help you get pregnant doesn't work as well when you're obese," said Dr. Tim Norwood.

In the last few years, Baylor Dr. Tim Norwood has seen a rise in the number of women seeking weight loss surgery -- lap band or gastric bypass -- as an infertility treatment.

In desperation, Turner did.

"It does work. But I always warn them not to get pregnant the first 12 to 18 months after surgery. That's during the rapid weight loss phase. That's where the nutrition is being affected the most. And as a result I say wait a year and a half, then get pregnant," Norwood said.

Success rates aren't well documented yet.

But studies show formerly-obese women who do then conceive are less likely to have pregnancy-related complications or need a c-section. Their babies are born healthier too.

A year after gastric bypass surgery, losing a hundred pounds, Turner got pregnant, right away.

"Exciting. My husband actually didn't believe me when I told him," she said.

For them, seeing the Claudia Joy of their lives is truly believing.

E-mail jstjames@wfaa.com.