Boutique Comforts Women, Offers Products to Help Post-Surgery

While hospitals can feel very clinical, there’s a shop that offers products for women post-surgery with kind, friendly faces to provide support.

Elisa Lawson created The Women's Health Boutique at The Weinberg Center for Women's Health and Medicine at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore almost 30 years ago. The boutique recently received an upgrade to a new space.

Lawson explained that she worked at department stores but saw what was missing: certain items that would help women who have just gone through tremendous losses and health issues.

“The close connection we have with all the surgeons here allows us to introduce them to the new products so they can bring patients down,” Lawson said.

“I’m referring patients down here all day, every day, just to really cross one thing off the checklist: all their practical concerns, their post-op recovery garments,” said Zoe Jafee, a breast cancer navigator who sees patients in The Hoffberger Breast Center at Mercy.

Products include specialty bras, breast forms, compression garments, wigs, and more.

“When I was going to get my single mastectomy, [I learned] that I would need a compression bra and I would need all these things and I was already overwhelmed. And they said, ‘Well, we have a place right here,’” said Heather van Keuren, a breast cancer survivor.

“They showed me a plethora of items that I could purchase, and things… to help me be better at what I needed to do for my cancer recovery,” said fellow breast cancer survivor Karen Brooks.

However, the products aren’t just items. The products come with people, many of whom are considered family by those who shop at the boutique.

“They’re like my sisters now,” van Keuren said. “I talk about them all the time and they really want to make sure that we feel as best as possible during one of the hardest things in our life.”

“It’s a place where we hug women and we welcome women and we make them feel safe before their surgery,” said Jennifer Crawford with the Women's Health Boutique. “We cheer them on during their surgery and we take care of them for life after.”

The boutique is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

View the interviews regarding Mercy’s Women’s Health Boutique.