Manhattan’s rock star doula
By JANE RIDLEY
Last Updated: 11:11 AM, October 24, 2012
Childbirth expert Latham Thomas helped her client into the hospital elevator — and held the doors as the husband dragged in three huge pieces of Louis Vuitton luggage and a vanity case.
“It was like we were headed to the airport,” laughs Thomas, recalling the recent visit to St. Luke’s Roosevelt in Midtown. “[The mom] may as well have been packing for Paris fashion week.”
Scenes like these are par for the course when you’re Manhattan’s “rock star doula” (doula is an ancient Greek word for a childbirth attendant who assists mothers during labor). Thomas is in such demand from A-listers, it’s best to book her services as soon as you get pregnant — preferably a few months before.
“This woman is an angel,” says fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff, who hired her as a prenatal yoga instructor and doula ahead of her son’s birth last year. “She empowers you so that you are free to focus on welcoming your baby into the world.”
Other high-profile clients include Stacey Bendet Eisner, founder of fashion line Alice + Olivia, and Victoria’s Secret model Doutzen Kroes. “I gave Doutzen nutritional advice throughout her pregnancy,” says Thomas of the Dutch model who had her son, Phyllon, in January 2011. “She did not put on much weight at all and it came off very easily after the delivery.”
At the moment, Thomas is awaiting a call from actress Tamera Mowry, star of the Style Network’s reality series “Tia & Tamera,” who is set to give birth to her first child any day, and for which she will likely be filmed for the show.
“I take a very holistic approach from the very beginning of the pregnancy, which focuses on diet, nutrition, exercise and the mother’s mindset,” says Thomas, 32, who charges up to $12,000 for her top-drawer maternity lifestyle packages through her Harlem-based company “Mama Glow.” These include consultations before and after the birth, doula services during labor, nutrition advice (in some cases, vegan meal deliveries), yoga and workout programs, and coordination with fertility experts and alternative medicine specialists.
“The goal is for [the women] to experience a healthy, balanced and fabulous pregnancy,” adds Thomas. “It can be very sexy and empowering if you embrace the changes to your body.”
To this end, she advocates eating plant-based foods, practicing yoga and meditation, and factoring in plenty of “me time,” as described in her first book “Mama Glow” out Nov. 6. (Thomas will also speak at the I Can Do It Ignite! conference at the Jacob Javits Center on Nov. 3 and 4.)
“A lot of women — especially the A-types who live and work in Manhattan — have issues with slowing things down. No matter how wealthy and successful you are, you still want your hand to be held.”
Thomas, a graduate of Columbia University and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, specialized in maternal health and well-being after the birth of her son, Fulano, now 9. “I felt there was this polarity in Manhattan where you had the hippie natural birth [movement] on one side and [doctors] who were into ultra-medical, hospitalized birth on the other. I thought: ‘How come there is no interaction?’ I wanted to bring those two sides together.”
Thomas also treats women who have problems conceiving. One banker’s wife from TriBeCa in her late 30s had been trying for a second child for more than two years.
“Everything she did was planned and rigid,” recalls Thomas. “She was thinking about all kinds of stressful things when she had sex.
“I got her enrolled in S Factor [an upscale pole-dancing program] so she felt more sensuous and she took maca, an Indian Peruvian tuber which has ‘antigenic’ properties, to level out hormone imbalances, in a shake.
“One day, she showed up [at her husband’s office] in a trench coat with gorgeous lingerie underneath.”
Within weeks, the well-connected Wall Street wife had another bun in the oven. Her friends demanded to know what had worked — and Thomas’ number made it into a whole other set of little black books.
The $12,000 doula! How much did yours cost?
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