Julia was 29 and had been working as a physician assistant when she became unexpectedly pregnant. She had wanted to be a doctor when she was a little girl, but later switched her goal to becoming a physician assistant. Julia also knew she wanted to be a wife and mother, but she wanted to focus on her career first. So, when she learned she was pregnant, she experienced the trepidation that many women who face unplanned pregnancy do.
“When I found out I was pregnant, I just immediately thought, no, I cannot do this,” Julia said. “This is not the time. This is not how I intended my life to be.”
She was taking a break after working a year-and-a-half in the ICU through the pandemic. Now she was unemployed and uninsured.
“I was scared to tell anyone fear of being judged or being called irresponsible,” she said. “I kept it completely to myself.”
During this time, Julia was considering abortion.
“I did want to figure out first if the pregnancy was even viable,” she explained. “I was looking for basically free healthcare, and that's how I came across RealOptions.”
Rosey Rosenke, patient service manager for RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics, remembers when Julia came through the clinic’s door.
“She was weeping,” Rosenke said. “I could see that she was overwhelmed and in her own words, she felt very alone. She was in between insurances as well, so, so many things going on in her life when she came to RealOptions.”
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RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics is a group of pregnancy help medical clinics in California with four locations. The non-profit serves “women, men, students, and families facing pregnancy decisions, sexual health choices, and seeking emotional healing from reproductive loss.”
RealOptions Obria welcomed Julia just as countless pregnancy help centers and medical clinics across the U.S. and the world do each day, with compassion, assistance, information, and support.
Julia shared her pregnancy help story with the clinic in a video message, describing how Rosenke received her, not pressing her about her pregnancy decision, putting no pressure on her.
“She was just there to be there,” Julia said. “More or less hold my hand through the process.”
The RealOptions staff gave Julia a pregnancy test, which was positive, and then they performed an ultrasound. Julia remarked how they scheduled her quickly, which was important to her.
“It was in the midst of my panic,” she said. “I was able to go to somebody who's a professional or an expert, and they were going to be able to walk me through what's going on.”
The ultrasound “made everything real,” Julia said. She was four to six weeks pregnant. Since she was early in her pregnancy RealOptions scheduled her for another ultrasound two weeks later to see the growth of her baby.
Julia remembered how she had very mixed emotions. After the first ultrasound she told her partner that she was pregnant, and the conversation began between them about their options. He was supportive, but she remembered this time being “a roller coaster,” and that she was very conflicted.
When Julia went back to RealOptions for the second ultrasound and when the tech put the probe on her, they immediately saw the baby had a heartbeat, drawing Julia’s emotions to the surface. The tech responded promptly with compassion.
“I think she said something extremely impactful to me,” Julia recalled. “She saw my emotion and me crying, and she literally held my hand, and she said, ‘Baby is safe in there. They have everything they need. You focus on yourself.’”
“And that stayed with me,” said Julia. “I was able to then just focus on, okay, what does it look like if baby has everything that they need there? What do I need out here? And I went from there.”
“I think that was honestly one of the sentences that is probably the reason I went on with the pregnancy,” she said.
“So many of the women we see just need permission to slow down,” Rosenke said. “They need permission to say, what do I need? What do I need? What do I want? What am I capable of doing?”
Tweet This: So many of the women we see just need permission to slow down. They need permission to say, what do I need?
“As the relationship grew with Julia, I could just see the weight being lifted,” Rosenke added. “I could see her feeling empowered that she could go forward and do this, which was such a transformation from the first time she walked through the door.”
Julia’s son Noah James was born August 8, 2022, weighing eight pounds, nine ounces.
“And yeah, he's a really great baby,” she said, reflecting on welcoming Noah, whose name she also subsequently recognized was providential.
“After I chose the name Noah, I realized that his name meant ‘rest,’” Julia said. “And I thought that was very fitting because when this unplanned pregnancy happened, it was at a point in my life where I was going, going, going, going.”
“I literally looked at Noah and had a feeling of rest and peace,” she said. “And he reminds me to be present more and more each day.”
After Julia had her baby, she called the staff at RealOptions and told them that she wanted to come in and give back, Rosenke said. Julia said she’d love to come and give them hugs and say thank you.
“And that was such a gift to us,” said Rosenke.
“I genuinely am so grateful that I ended up at RealOptions,” Julia said.
“I literally walked into RealOptions with no expectations,” she said. “And I was completely surprised that they were providing me with emotional support that I did not even ask for.”
“I could not imagine my life without Noah James,” said Julia. “I'm so happy to be his mom.”
Editor's note: RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics and Heartbeat International are the subject of a lawsuit brought the attorney general of California concerning sharing information about Abortion Pill Reversal. Heartbeat International, which manages Pregnancy Help News, is also the subject of a similar lawsuit in New York state.
