Life is filled with selections, big and small, but there may be also much that is out of our control.
In her latest memoir, “Boundless: An Abortion Doctor Becomes a Mother,” writer Christine Henneberg ponders the concept of alternative — from her own profession decisions and journey toward motherhood to the importance of trusting the alternatives of her patients — and easy methods to reconcile a necessity for boundaries with the boundless love and dedication of parenthood. Though it is a deeply personal book, Henneberg also beautifully recounts many stories of patients, members of the family, friends and colleagues which have stuck together with her over time, from harrowing to heartwarming (and sometimes each directly).
Her book got here together just a few years ago, within the early months of her newborn daughter’s life, as Henneberg reflected over lots of the experiences and feelings she’d written about in her journal during her medical residency and beyond. She began recognizing common themes, “all about moms, all about this same ambivalence I had during my training — not only whether to maintain going but whether I could possibly be a mom, whether I desired to be a mom — the stories, all of them already existed in my notebook,” she said.
In “Boundless,” she discusses her struggles in the course of the grueling period of medical school and residency; her doubts about her alternative of profession; and ultimately finding achievement as an abortion doctor.
“I feel basically people have this misconception that ladies entering into to an abortion clinic are sort of careless, or clueless, or naive … and that the clinic is filled with people who find themselves dejected and ashamed. It couldn’t be farther from the reality,” she said. Yes, there are many moments of pain, sadness, and difficulty, but there may be also empowerment.
“We’re so proud to be there helping women through these difficult decisions,” she said. “It’s extremely rewarding work that we take a whole lot of pride in. Women leave the clinic carried to some extent on that pride they feel from the great care they’ve received there.”
One among the explanations Henneberg said she loves her work as an abortion provider is the chance to totally support women of their selections.
“I actually love meeting a girl in a spot and a time in her life when she has every reason to feel anxious, afraid or certain that she’s going to be treated poorly. To satisfy her and say, ‘I completely trust you. I’ll treat you with all of the dignity and respect you deserve and keep you protected,'” she said. “Really trusting her together with her life and her body, I feel that is just not something that ladies get — especially pregnant women — fairly often.”
As a California-based doctor, Henneberg has not seen much change to her day-to-day clinical work because the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and denied the constitutional right to abortion, although she said she does now see more patients from out of state.
“I definitely have strong feelings concerning the women who’re stuck in other states who we are going to never see, who’re so stuck they cannot really access any solution. For thus many ladies it was so hard for them to get an abortion already,” she said. “And I take into consideration my colleagues in other states who trained to do the work that I do, who cannot do it any more.”
When her two children are older, she hopes to travel to assist provide care in states like Kansas, where abortion clinics are facing an influx of patients from neighboring states, and interact in additional activist work. “I take into consideration what’s happening in the remaining of the country so much,” she said.
While becoming a mother has not modified Henneberg’s commitment to abortion work, it has had an impact on how she pertains to the ladies in her care, especially to the numerous who have already got children and are making a choice on ending a subsequent pregnancy.
“I actually discover more with my patients. I empathize with them,” she said. “They make decisions for what’s best for his or her families. I understand the complexity of that alternative, of that call, significantly better than before.”
The structure of “Boundless” follows Henneberg’s pregnancy leading as much as the birth of her first child, interspersed with memories from her childhood and private life in addition to her medical work. Along with her evolving thoughts about motherhood, she reflects on her relationship together with her husband, his close-knit family, and her own parents, including the sometimes fraught connection together with her father, who died nearly three years ago.
“He knew very much the complexities of his and my relationship and the way we loved one another and pushed one another very hard,” Henneberg said. “I do not think there’s anything within the book that will have surprised him.”
From a young age, Henneberg at all times dreamed of being a author. She was raised in Palo Alto and fondly recalls many comfortable days spent visiting the previous downtown bookshop, If Wishes Were Horses, and the Palo Alto Kid’s Library, where she spending hours reading in its Secret Garden.
“For somebody who liked to read, Palo Alto was the right place to grow up,” she said. Her love of writing soon followed her love of reading. At age 14, in truth, she won the Palo Alto Weekly’s annual Short Story Contest (“She writes compulsively,” her mother told this news organization on the time).
While writing stays perhaps her truest calling, she became fascinated by medicine after volunteering as an English teacher in rural India during a semester off from college.
The experience “really opened my eyes to public health and poverty,” she said, particularly with regard to women’s health, and she or he was inspired by the work of Paul Farmer, the late physician and co-founder of the nonprofit Partners in Health, as well other writer-doctors. “I knew it was possible,” she said of mixing medicine and writing. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and inventive writing from Pomona College, then accomplished the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program.
In recent times, she’s published essays within the Recent York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Review, HuffPost, Slate, the Los Angeles Times and others, and plans to return to fiction writing as well.
“I’m at all times writing about abortion stories because there are such a lot of of them,” she said. “I hope to assist people understand what’s at stake and the way complicated it could possibly be.”
More information is offered at christinehenneberg.com.
