I first met Latham Thomas when we were both in our 20s living in Harlem. She was a young mom teaching prenatal yoga to teens in the South Bronx, running a gourmet vegan catering business, beginning her studies as a doula, and planting the seeds for Mama Glow (www.mamaglow.com).
Thomas teaches women (and people of all genders) how to luxuriate in the sacredness of their temple as they move into the threshold of bringing life to the planet. As she supports soon-to-be parents starting the journey of motherhood, she also teaches them how to center, love, and trust themselves.
“I had this Vedic astrology reading,” she recalls. “In the reading, he said, ‘You’re supposed to mother the mother.’ It was clear to me when he said that. I was like, ‘OK’ . . . then shortly after that, I was accepted to a doula fellowship program.”
Thomas sees access to a tender and nourishing birth experience as the right of all people, and centering people of color and LGBTQIA+ parents has been an important part of her work. She understands the need to heal the legacy of Black oppression within spaces of birth, maternity, and parenthood.
“I think about it like we think about Harriet Tubman. She is sort of like a guardian angel, a north star, as we think about helping people cross a river in the darkness, and what that looks like to navigate a terrain that you haven’t crossed before,” she says. “I’m there and I can help guide them, and it’s a privilege. It’s such an honor to be able to do that.”
(Read more about Thomas in her EL cover story at “Owning Her Glow: Latham Thomas”.)
This was excerpted from “Welcome to Wellness” which was published in Experience Life magazine.
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