If you’re a doula passionate about making breastfeeding more inclusive, Latham Thomas, the founder of Mama Glow & Mama Glow Foundation, has created a breastfeeding certification program for doulas. Officially known as The Mama Glow Foundation First Foods Justice Breastfeeding Certification Program, it’s an educational program rooted in restorative justice.
The program will provide professional lactation education to marginalized individuals and people who live in communities that have felt the negative impacts of health inequity, leading to poor breastfeeding outcomes.
“As a Black mother who breastfed my son for 3 years, I’m deeply proud of the work we did to develop this program for the community,” Thomas says. “I was blessed to have a mother who was a powerful teaching example of Black breastfeeding, who helped me in the first week postpartum in learning how to feed my newborn. My son and I developed a rhythm and overtime, breastfeeding would become second nature to me. This is not the case for all of us.”
The data shows that Black women face disproportionate barriers to breastfeeding and said barriers include a lack of knowledge about breastfeeding, lack of community support, and inadequate education and support from healthcare settings.
“Many new mothers struggle in silence as they navigate the challenges, the pain and ultimately, they can’t continue,” says Thomas. “The First Foods Justice Breastfeeding Certification Program for Doulas was born out of what I saw as a need to address the unique challenges and disparities in breastfeeding rates in the Black community specifically, while also empowering doulas to bring much needed information and resources to new parents navigating their breastfeeding journeys.”
The program already trained over 100 First Foods Justice Advocates during the summer cohort, which took place in July.
You can visit the foundation’s official website to learn more about the certification and apply.