Why I started curating books for women on the motherhood journey

Books have always been part of how I work.

Not as a substitute for presence or conversation, but as something that can reach a woman in the quiet moments, the 3am feeds, the long afternoons of pregnancy when the body is moving faster than the mind can follow. A book that names something a woman has been carrying without language for it is not a small thing. It is sometimes the thing that changes how she moves through the rest of the journey.

I started collecting books for La Boutique because I kept encountering the same problem. The books I wanted to recommend were not always in print, not always affordable, and not always easy to find. And the books that are easy to find, the ones stacked at the front of every bookshop in a pastel cover with a reassuring title, are not always the ones worth reading.

What I look for is different. I look for books that tell the truth about what pregnancy, birth and postpartum actually ask of a woman. Books that do not manage the experience but honour it. Books rooted in evidence, in ancestral wisdom, in the kind of clinical and personal knowledge that only comes from decades of sitting with women through the most significant passages of their lives.

Every book in La Boutique is pre-owned and has been in my hands before it reaches yours. I read them, or I know them well enough to stand behind them. Some have been part of my own formation as a doula and as a woman navigating the pre-conception journey. Some I found on the shelves of women whose libraries told me everything I needed to know about how they think about birth. Some I have hunted specifically because I knew a woman needed them and could not find them anywhere else.

The selection will grow slowly and deliberately. Not every book that crosses my path will make it in. The ones that do will be there because they are worth your time, your attention and the particular kind of trust that comes with reading something that was written to help you rather than to sell you something.

I will also be writing about books here on The Doula Diaries, sharing what each one gave me and who I think needs to read it. When a copy is available in La Boutique, I will say so. When it is not, I will tell you where to find it.

Books find their way to the people who need them. This is my way of helping that happen a little more intentionally. 🌿

Browse the current selection at La Boutique

— Sabah, The Line Between · Beaufort, VIC

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Sabah is a certified doula and acupressure therapist based in Beaufort, Victoria. Her practice, The Line Between, is rooted in the philosophy of matrescence, the profound transformation of becoming a mother that deserves to be held with knowledge, presence and deep respect. She came to this work through her own pre-conception journey and a deep conviction that matrescence is a universal feminine passage that every woman deserves to move through with community, language and care. She is also the founder of The Mother's Village, a monthly gathering circle for women on every part of the motherhood journey. She writes from the threshold as a practitioner, a thinker and a woman navigating this passage herself.

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