Welcome to the first edition of my blog on Obria’s website. I will be using this space to share my thoughts about Obria, the work we do, let you know about upcoming ways to help us, and show you how much your support of Obria makes a difference in the lives of women, babies, and men every day.

Since I joined Obria last July, I have been encouraged and uplifted by the way we carry out our mission. We do so with joy, excitement, and compassion. Despite the long days, the headwinds in the culture, and occasional challenges, it is our staff that makes Obria a place where miracles happen. It is a privilege to lead our team and to learn from them. It is an honor to talk to the courageous women who come through our doors to seek our help. And it is humbling to welcome new lives into the world, knowing that we played a small part in helping a woman choose life.

We are in the birthday business!

As part of that happy enterprise, we not only support women before they give birth but afterward as well. That happens in first-class facilities with incredible doctors and nurses. And it happens because of the men and women who support us with donations and prayers. We need both.

As the CEO of Obria, I am always working to make the organization the best it can be. Let me share with you four ways over the last few months that Obria has built upon its strong foundation.

1. Emphasizing teambuilding and unity. My decades in healthcare have taught me much. Key among them is the need to have a team that functions well and as a family. We need to be focused on the same mission, support one another and excel at what we do. I have led a reorganization of our team bringing on new members to help us advance to the next level of providing outstanding whole health care for women. Our team is working on the business side needed to run our clinics professionally and steward our funding responsibly. What ties everything together is staying focused on our mission. The mission remains paramount while we work on team building, unity, and professional best practices for the business of Obria.

2. Donations have increased by 20%. Over the last several months, donations have increased by 20%. The life-changing work we are doing is not going unnoticed. When I talk to donors and prospective donors, they are amazed at how Obria can touch so many lives. Your donations are a treasure. We value them, respect them, and put them to good use in our clinics. The increase in donations is a vote of confidence in what we do, and an act of trust. We will continue to earn your trust.

3. Support for Obria has increased locally and nationally. In Orange County, California, we have continued our relationships with local supporters, such as the Knights of Columbus. At the same time, we have started working nationally with significant partners including the American Heart Association, the Archdiocese of New York, Human Coalition, Preborn, and Church of God in Christ. We are sharing best practices, networking with others committed to life-affirming health care, and growing the community of carers who understand and appreciate what we do. Our clinics benefit from increasing our work with leaders in health care, and our partners benefit from our expertise.

4. Increasing revenue and client visits. These numbers do matter. Since I started my tenure as CEO of Obria, business revenue has increased 300% and traffic to the clinics has increased 20% per quarter. We are growing. We help more women. More babies are being born. More women come to our clinics to access our suite of services. It is that simple. We are proud of the fact that we are growing our business while providing that unquantifiable deliverable to our clients: love.

That was quite a lot for my first blog post! It has been an amazing first few months for me at Obria. I have the best team I could ask for, a crystal clear mission, exciting partnerships, and high-quality health care being provided to women daily.

I also have your support, your prayers, and your appreciation of the work we do at Obria. At the end of the day, it is mother and child who matter above all. Thank you for helping us serve them both.

Dawn Hughes, MSN, MBA, RN