Beyond the Exam Room

Beyond the Exam Room

How God expanded my understanding of compassionate patient care.

For twenty-two years, I had the privilege of serving as a family physician. It was a career I loved, but one I never expected to pursue.

Growing up, I thought I would follow in my family’s footsteps and enter the business world. I studied business at university, enjoyed accounting, and assumed that would be my future. Yet as graduation approached, I realized something was missing. While I appreciated the work, I wasn’t passionate about it.

That uncertainty led me to Haiti, where I spent eight weeks volunteering with a medical team. I visited hospitals, orphanages, and Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying. At the time, I wasn’t a Christian, and I knew very little about the faith that motivated so many of the people serving there, but I was deeply moved by what I witnessed.

When I returned home, I knew something had shifted. The path I had been following toward a business career no longer felt like the right one. Medicine had captured my attention in a way I hadn’t expected, and pursuing it meant a significant change of direction—returning to school to complete the science courses I needed and beginning the long process of completing my medical training. It was a complete departure from the future I had imagined for myself.

Seeing Medicine Differently

Years later, after becoming a Christian, I began to see my work as a physician through different eyes.

Like every medical student, I had studied embryology. I understood that every human being develops from a unique genetic blueprint beginning at conception. Yet somehow, my understanding of abortion remained disconnected from what I knew scientifically. It was simply part of medical practice.

That disconnect didn’t disappear overnight. Instead, God began changing my heart through people. One of those people was a young woman in our community who had Down syndrome.

I watched how her parents loved her. I saw the joy she brought to those around her. Her curiosity, her warmth, and the way she connected with others caused me to ask questions I had never seriously considered before.

I found myself wondering: What gives us the right to decide that one life has more value than another? That question stayed with me.

Around the same time, a friend who had been adopted at birth reconnected with her birth mother. As she learned more of her birth mother’s story, she discovered how little support had been available to her during the challenges of her unexpected pregnancy. We both began to recognize a gap in the practical support available to women facing the many challenges and pressures that can accompany an unexpected pregnancy. Medical care and information were important, but women also needed someone who would listen, understand the pressures they were facing, and walk alongside them as they considered their options.

Beyond the Exam Room

As a family physician, I could explain a diagnosis, discuss options, and answer medical questions. What I couldn’t always provide was the practical support many women desperately needed.

I remember sitting across from a young woman whose greatest need wasn’t another medical explanation. She already knew her options. What she didn’t know was whether anyone would stand with her if she chose to continue her pregnancy.

An unexpected pregnancy is rarely just about the pregnancy. It may involve financial insecurity, unstable relationships, housing concerns, fear of disappointing family members, or uncertainty about the future. The pregnancy often becomes the visible part of a much larger story.

I realized that medicine alone wasn’t enough. People needed time. They needed someone to listen without rushing. They needed practical help. They needed hope.

That realization eventually led several friends and me, with the encouragement and support of Pregnancy Care Canada, to establish a local pregnancy care centre in our community. Our hope was simple: to create a place where women and men could receive medically accurate information, practical support, and compassionate care without feeling pressured or judged. For many, it became the first place where they felt truly heard.

A New Direction

A few years later, Pregnancy Care Canada invited me to serve on its Board of Directors. I gladly accepted because I had seen firsthand how vital its support and training were to local pregnancy care centres.

Then, when the Executive Director announced her retirement, someone around the board table looked at me and said, “Laura, why don’t you become the Executive Director?”

My response was immediate: “No, I don’t want to.”

But over the weeks that followed, I found myself waking during the night with ideas about the future of Pregnancy Care Canada. I began thinking about pregnancy care centres across the country, the opportunities ahead, and the thousands of women and families who might never receive support if these centres didn’t exist. Gradually, I realized God was inviting me into a new season, and eventually, I said yes.

A Broader Understanding of Care

People sometimes ask why I left medicine. The truth is, I don’t believe I ever really did.

Whether caring for patients in a medical office, equipping pregnancy care centres across Canada, or writing and speaking today, one desire has increasingly shaped my work: to help people experience compassion, dignity, and hope.

Over the years, I’ve come to understand that caring well for people often means looking beyond the immediate issue in front of us. It means seeing the whole person, recognizing the burdens they may be carrying, and considering how we might help.

I’ve come to understand compassion as more than believing every life matters. It means seeing the person, recognizing the burdens they are carrying, and being willing to walk alongside them.

Looking Back

When I began medical school, I thought becoming a physician would define my life’s work. Instead, medicine became one chapter in a much larger story.

God used medicine to teach me how to care for people. He used people to deepen my compassion, faith to reshape my understanding of human dignity, and unexpected invitations to lead me into places I never imagined.

Looking back, I’m grateful that God rarely reveals the whole journey at once. He simply asks us to take the next faithful step.

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