Celebrating CANFP Professional Mary Davenport, MD

My very confused husband opened the randomly wrapped gift. It wasn’t his birthday or our anniversary. Watching the joy wash over his face would weeks later be overshadowed by the news that our baby wouldn’t make it. But buried deep below my grief was the observation that my OB’s warm hand on my shoulder contrasted starkly with the coldness of my previous OB/GYNs.

Dr. Davenport would then go on to analyze my data: my charts, my labs, my diet, and my health history to come up with what she called “a plan.” To know that (1) she cared so much about her patient; and (2) I was in the hands of an intellectual and dedicated researcher; and (3) there was something so concrete as “a plan” to grow our family gave me great peace. There was hope.

Since losing our first, I’ve had four more children, and every single woman I referred to Dr. Davenport was able to become pregnant, despite their unique challenges.

Dr. Davenport never kept her knowledge and expertise to herself, though. At every visit, she would sit and explain the science behind things to me like an equal (which I was and am not). She was never interested in having patients comply with her plan in order to move her schedule along. She took the time to ensure I understood the science (forgive me if you’re reading this, Dr. Davenport, but sometimes I did not, but nodded from a place of both trust and…well, ignorance). She wanted her patients to understand the wonder that is their fertility and their bodies; and how one can use the science of NAPRO technology and Natural Family Planning to work with their fertility—not against it—to either achieve or delay pregnancy.

I would have to say, though, that Dr. Davenport’s dedication and compassion hit me the hardest not in regards to my children, but to my appendix. Let me explain. When I was 17 weeks pregnant with our 4th child, I developed chronic appendicitis. I was rushed to be prepped for an emergency appendectomy at the hospital, and was briskly told my baby would likely do fine through the surgery. I remember waiting in the ER, scared for my baby’s life and my own, without a doctor I knew in sight. Dr. Davenport showed up unexpectedly, and I nearly lost it. I could barely stammer out, “Thank you for being here,” to which she responded, “Well, that’s what we do!” It’s not, though. It’s not what every OB would do for his or her patient. She came late at night to hold my hand in the bright, sterile operating room, and to ensure that my baby was safe through a surgery she wasn’t even performing. I cannot do justice to the relief her presence brought my husband and me in a harrowing situation. And she came through in many more harrowing situations of friends and family outside of her office hours. She has helped countless couples create new lives, and she has helped save many, as well.

I have nothing but gratitude and admiration for this brilliant woman who changed the course of my family’s life, and with heart.