Latham Thomas on Slowing Down and Reflecting in Pregnancy, Postpartum and Parenting

Latham Thomas has been in the pregnancy and parenting space for over two decades—but her journey started even earlier. At an early age, Latham became fascinated by the many ways pregnancy and parenthood shape and change the very essence of who we are and how we show up for ourselves and others. It’s this pull that led her to start Mama Glow and the Mama Glow Foundation, a global education platform that trains doulas and birth workers, collaborates with insurance companies and hospital systems to improve policies, and supports families along the way.

Latham has expanded her foundation to earn a global reputation, and she’s also authored several books and audiobooks, including Own Your Glow: A Soulful Guide to Luminous Living and Crowning the Queen Within, Mama Glow: A Hip Guide to Your Fabulous Abundant Pregnancy and Beditations: Guided Meditations and Rituals for Rest and Renewal. Her latest audiobook, Peaceful Parenting, which comes out August 12, features 20 meditations meant to guide you through the challenges and joys of pregnancy, postpartum and parenthood. Whether you’re looking for ways to prepare for birth, hoping to bond with baby, coping with body changes, struggling with stress and sleep deprivation, dealing with parental guilt or just wanting to build confidence as a new parent, there’s a meditation for that. Additionally, the program includes self-care tips and journal prompts to help you grow into your best self.

It was Latham’s experiences as a doula and parent that inspired her to create the Peaceful Parenting audiobook, and she hopes listeners find that self-care can and should be more accessible during this beautiful but trying life stage. Read on to hear from her about how you can embrace this mentality in your daily routine—and get a sneak peek at one of her favorite meditations from the audiobook.

The Bump: You have over 20 years of experience as a doula—what made you decide to become a doula in the first place? How did you get started on this journey?

Latham Thomas: It really started with an exploration of my pregnancy experience with my son—he’s 22 now. Once he was born, I had a deep calling to move into birth work in a more tangible way. But I’d say the seeds were planted when I was a child. My mom really did her best to ensure that I had this experience of body literacy and an understanding of how the body functions. I learned about pelvic anatomy when I was 4 years old. She was pregnant at the time, and that colored my experience. So many of our primal memories that end up shaping who we become later happen in those first formative years of life. I’d say my entire life arc was shaped around these experiences as a child and having this wonder and excitement around what pregnancy was as a 4-year-old… That experience of becoming a sibling was so transformative for me.

TB: It’s so interesting to recognize as an adult that so much of who you are is shaped really early on. In terms of this audiobook, how did your experiences inspire you to release Peaceful Parenting?

LT: One thing that I did early on in my doula practice—before we had audio messages—I did these audio recordings in the voice notes app of my iPhone. I’d send those to people and they’d be about mindfulness and affirmations. I did a lot of affirmation work with clients around vocalizing visualizations, writing them down and then creating art around them to bring into the delivery room.

I also found that I was sending these recordings out as resources. When the opportunity came along with Simon & Schuster to work on something like this, it was such a dream come true because it’s the kind of resource I would want to send to my clients. It’s also what I’d have wanted for myself. A lot of us come to this work and bring improvements or resources that we didn’t get to benefit from… We saw a gap. For me, there’s a ton of meditation audio programs that exist, but this is specifically around addressing the neuroses that come up with parenthood. It’s addressing the specific needs and challenges around lack of sleep, parental guilt, dealing with tantrums, stress and the overwhelm of living at an accelerated pace. It’s helping us to address the challenges of modern parenthood.

Much of my work has been focused on teaching the next generation of doulas. At Mama Glow, we train doulas and nurse care managers—and our community of over 3000 doulas globally needs me. A lot of my focus has shifted toward education and developing programs to advance maternal health. I can’t do doula work in the same way, but a resource like this allows me to create that handholding experience that I would have with people as a doula.

TB: Why did you settle on meditations, mindfulness and guided visualizations in particular?

LT: The mindfulness piece to me is really so critical because a lot of people have the self-awareness to understand that they’re stressed, that they’re carrying all types of anxiety and neuroses about things that they can’t change. But there are also things that they can tangibly change if they have the tools. What we hope to do with the audiobook is to help people use the tools on a daily basis. One of the things that I’m so excited about is the companion tool kit where people can actually engage in exercises and write down their affirmations and reflections. You might start this process now and look back in six months to see what you journaled and be able to see the growth.

You just have to show up and say, “I’m going to continuously bring myself to this space and show up, so that I can make a difference in my own life.” If people can make incremental change by showing up whenever they can, then we’re celebrating the tiny victories along the way. We have meditations that are really brief so that people can just do a five minute check-in, as well as others that are longer and lead toward sleep, for instance. It’s really designed for anyone along the journey, whether they’re a beginner or someone who’s had mindfulness practice. Mindfulness is, for all of us, an opportunity and a moment to check in and be present… You can literally turn this on and be driving your car, or you could be washing dishes or you could be laying down with baby. Our journey here is to help people reclaim their sanity, peace and joy, but also really lean into what’s happening to them as parents. For some of us, it could be challenging, and I want people to have the tools to navigate those challenges.

TB: What does mindfulness and self-care mean to you?

LT: It’s not like bubble bathing your problems away or trying to set aside a day or a time block, which is what a lot of people do. They sort of schedule their self-care. They say, “I’m going to do this spa,” or the Instagram self-care, which is really staging a bath that’s cold because you were photographing it and not actually taking the bath.

It’s not really this so much as it’s about asking yourself, “What would be the best decision for me to make right now for myself and everyone involved? How do I take care of myself in this moment?” That is what self-care is about—it’s about checking in with yourself and saying, “You know what? I’m feeling exhausted. I’m feeling overwhelmed. I’m feeling stressed. I’m feeling anxious. I’m going to pull back and do something for myself.” It’s being a master of your own nervous system, understanding what your needs are, actually listening to those needs and anticipating those needs.

One thing that we do in doula work is we anticipate the needs of others. We can anticipate that they need a sip of water or that they need their head stroked or they need their hands held or they need cheerleading. When you’re practicing self-care, you’re learning to design your life around supporting your needs.

It’s incremental every day—you can just say self-care is having a cookie, getting a coffee with friends, reading the book that’s been sitting on the shelf, going for a walk with baby in the stroller… We always make it out to be such a feat. But there are these tiny victories I’m talking about. It’s about learning early—not just when the baby arrives, but along that journey of pregnancy—how to anticipate your needs, learn how to respond and learn how to ask for help.

TB: Has your definition of self-care changed as you’ve gone through all of these different stages as a doula, as a parent and now as a founder facilitating change?

LT: Nowadays, it’s going for a walk, gardening or tending to my home. I really enjoy and feel grounded by things that have to do with the home—cleaning, organizing and putting my books in color order. Those are things that really ground me. I’m not sure if before I would have been like, “Oh, I want to organize my books,” but now I lean into how it gives me some peace.

TB: Slowing down can be difficult, especially for stressed parents who have trouble turning off their thoughts. What are some tips for finding success in meditation and living at a slower pace?

LT: Slowing down is critical, and pacing is within our power… What would happen if you delegated? What would happen if you did slow down all these things? I’m always asking people, and I find out that once people really think it through, they’re like, “Yeah, I can probably take a beat.”

I think it’s really just unlearning so much of what we’ve been taught about hustle culture. I think about millennials and Gen X—we push until we fall on our faces… I don’t think anybody even knew what mental health was. We thought that therapy was for people who were not well and people who were going through divorce. Now, many people have a therapist—not for a crisis, but to avoid [struggles]. People are open, and the average person on the street understands and has maybe even engaged in some sort of mindfulness practice without even knowing it.

TB: I think it also helps the next generation. Watching a parent take a step back, slow things down and really understand what they need, it raises a generation of people who are better in tune with what they need. It’s really cool that a lot of this is stuff that can be done together as a family.

LT: Yeah, that’s definitely what we want—we want that message going out to people… I just hope that people have an opportunity to check out the audio audiobook. If people are interested in learning more about doulas and the work that we do, or if they’re looking for a doula, they can go to MamaGlow.com for that. If they’re interested, Peaceful Parenting is available everywhere that you can get an audiobook.

Below, check out one of Latham’s favorite mediations from Peaceful Parenting, out now.