Me Before: The Invisible Load of Working Motherhood and the Journey Back to Self (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781067288419)

Me Before is a deeply honest, relatable, and empowering exploration of motherhood, identity, ambition, mental load, and rediscovery. Written by New Zealand speech-language therapist, vocal specialist, businesswoman, and mother Amy Marie, this book dives into the emotional and psychological shifts that so many women experience after becoming mothers - the parts rarely spoken about openly.

For generations, women have been told that motherhood should be the most fulfilling chapter of their lives. But what happens when you love your children deeply and still quietly grieve the woman you used to be? What happens when your world becomes centred around caring for everyone else, while your own dreams, ambitions, confidence, identity, relationships, health, and sense of self slowly begin to blur into the background?

Me Before explores the invisible load women carry every day, the mental exhaustion, identity changes, emotional overwhelm, burnout, guilt, pressure, overstimulation, and constant balancing act between motherhood, career, relationships, and personal ambition. Through a blend of vulnerable storytelling, humour, evidence-based insights, reflective exercises, and deeply human moments, Amy Marie creates a space where women can finally feel seen, validated, and understood.

The book explores themes including matrescence, career identity, emotional labour, relationships, self-worth, boundaries, burnout, rediscovering joy, nervous system overload, modern motherhood, and the pressure to "do it all." It also shines a light on the experience of high-achieving women and working mothers who often feel torn between their love for their families and the parts of themselves still longing for growth, purpose, creativity, and independence.

Rather than telling women to "bounce back" or return to who they once were, Me Before gently encourages readers to embrace who they are becoming. It challenges the unrealistic expectations placed on mothers and opens important conversations around identity, ambition, wellbeing, and the reality of modern womanhood.

Warm, intelligent, raw, funny, and deeply relatable, Me Before is the kind of book that feels like sitting down with a trusted friend who finally understands the thoughts you have struggled to put into words yourself. It is for the mothers who feel lost, overwhelmed, disconnected, exhausted, ambitious, lonely, hopeful, or somewhere in between. It is for the women trying to navigate motherhood without losing themselves completely in the process.

At its core, Me Before is a reminder that motherhood changes you, but it does not erase you.