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That rubric became the basis for Thomas’ lauded doula training program and maternity lifestyle brand, Mama Glow—also the title of her first book, published in 2012. And while her brand has since garnered acclaim and a celebrity following, Thomas tells us her inspiration was black women, since even as an alumna of a series of esteemed predominantly white institutions, she became all too familiar with the feeling of being marginalized when seeking medical care; an especially delicate juncture during maternity.

“I felt like I didn’t even have [the] language for why I felt that way,” Thomas shared. “I don’t think I even had a term for microaggression then; I don’t even think I could [articulate] what that feeling was when you walk into a space and you know you’re not safe there. I just knew the feeling and I knew that I was trying to avoid that feeling.”

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Mama Glow seeks to change that, especially for black mothers. A glance at the brand’s Instagram page is awash with imagery of black women experiencing the full breadth of childbearing, from pregnancy to breastfeeding. Thomas told us that the focus is deliberate, because those experiences belong to us, too.

“What we see now is this white feminist movement around body acceptance. I don’t know like how to describe it any other way, except for that there’s this thing where people feel really encouraged and inspired to share their bodies—whether that’s them breastfeeding or them naked or whatever—and it’s, like, art. But when we do it, it’s seen as anthropology or it’s seen as nudity. When they do it, it’s seen as ‘beauty’ and ‘brave’...

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Image for article titled Reclaiming Our Birthright: Latham Thomas Is Protecting the Birthing Experience for Black Mothers
Photo: Latham Thomas (Mama Glow)

“If everywhere you turn your head the media is centering that, then that’s what’s seen as important and that’s what’s seen as beautiful, and that’s what’s seen as acceptable,” Thomas continued. “And so, I think that we’re up against a lot with that, just like we’re up against a lot when it comes to our bodies being colonized by people who want to partake and pick and choose the parts they want to map onto their bodies and be celebrated for—whether [it’s] our butts, our lips, our thighs...They want the fun stuff; the stuff that’s celebrated is what they want; not the stuff we actually have to deal with.”

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Providing not only guidance to aspiring, expectant and new mothers but certified training for doulas, Thomas and Mama Glow are enabling a new generation of practitioners to assist and support predominantly black mothers in everything from fertility to breastfeeding—a function of mothering that black women, perhaps because of our own deeply troubled history of forced wetnursing, have often felt alienated from.

“When we see the pictures of breastfeeding, it’s seen as when black women do it, it is exceptional; it’s like, those are the few that do it,” said Thomas. “When white women do it, that’s, like, just what it is. That’s like the baseline; that’s white women mothering. And that’s not what it’s been; that’s what it’s become—they didn’t ever do this; we did this work. We’re the ones who taught them to do this and so, it’s interesting how it flipped.

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“We see this in every aspect of anything that we started or anything that we were the originators of or the people who did something first,” Thomas continued. “Now, it’s not cool to use formula and it’s cool to breastfeed, and here they go, all over our [social media] feeds with their breastfeeding pictures, right?...People see that, but they don’t see us...So that’s the consciousness, and if we don’t have people in our communities that model for us what breastfeeding looks like and what breastfeeding success looks like, then it’s really challenging.” (Editor’s note: Black Breastfeeding Week was Aug. 25 through 31.)

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Confronting those challenges—as well as the black maternal mortality crisis and the bleak health outcomes facing black communities—has become Thomas’ lifelong mission.

“I felt really compelled by the vision of Harriet Tubman and carrying people to safe passage,” she told The Glow Up. “This is what we do: We carry mothers to safe passage through darkness and we help navigate a really uncharted territory for most people. It’s their first time—or one of very few times in their life that they’ll do something like this. And being a doula is like bearing witness to that, but also being this very powerful person of support that helps them get through...I see it as not just being of service, but also being like the compass, you know? And supporting the process and holding the light for the mother who’s undergoing this transformation.”