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No, we are not dreaming, and yes, we read that right: we are talking about fourth trimester of pregnancy. However, everyone knows that a pregnancy lasts about 9 months, or three trimesters. So what is behind what is called the 4th trimester of pregnancy?
When a woman is pregnant, she becomes one with her baby. She feeds him, cradles him, sleeps with him, moves with him, almost without even thinking about it. The woman’s body is seen modified and turned upside down to welcome and house this little being in the making for nine months. The fetus, on the other hand, is warm in his mother’s womb. Cradled by the beating of the mother’s heart and by all the sounds of the functioning organs, the fetus does not have to make any effort to feed itself or to regulate its temperature.
And then what ? Suddenly, barely the delivery is over, should everything be perfect right away? That baby immediately gets used to his new surroundings? That he can suck in less than two, stay alone in his room, far from the one that carried him for nine months? May the mother’s body become what it was before this great adventure began?
The 4th trimester of pregnancy, or continuum concept
Because mom and baby both need a adaptation time more or less long to get used to this new situation, we speak of the fourth trimester of pregnancy, or the concept of the continuum. Exhibited by the American author Jean Liedloff, in an essay published in 1975, the continuum concept is to say that the mother-child physical and psychological proximity is necessary, both for the well-being of the mother and that of the child. The author bases her remarks on the observation of tribes (the Yekwana and the Sanemas) in the Amazon jungle. She found that newborns spent their first months surrounded at every moment by their mother, and ended up detach themselves from it when they were confident enough, quite comfortable with the world around them. Convinced of the benefits of the continuum between mother and baby, Jean Liedloff recommends the practice of co-sleeping, wearing in a sling, swaddling, skin-to-skin, breastfeeding on demand, etc. In short, all these practices that are sometimes grouped around the term mothering, or even intensive mothering.
The 4th trimester of pregnancy, a period of re-transformation of the female body
Beyond this idea of a mother-child continuum after birth, we speak of the 4th trimester of pregnancy to evoke a physical reality. Because if the newborn and the placenta have left the mother’s body, it has not returned to its pre-pregnancy state, during conception. We could thus speak of “postpartum” body, when the woman is neither pregnant nor “not pregnant”.
The belly is still a little rounded, because the uterus only gradually returns to its place, thanks to uterine contractions called trenches. The breasts are the target of milk surges, especially if the new mother is breastfeeding, and have sometimes changed in size and appearance compared to before pregnancy. If a cesarean has occurred, the scar may be painful. The skin on the stomach is usually a bit “flabby”, as it has stretched to accommodate the baby and then relaxed suddenly during delivery.
So many upheavals that the woman, now a mother, can live with difficulty, especially since advertising, celebrity magazines and society as a whole praise the perfect body, smooth, firm, without marks, without scars, in short , without any experience.
In addition, if she is often the center of all the attentions of loved ones when she is pregnant, the young mother sometimes feels a little lonely once the baby is born. At birth, we only have eyes for him. And then very quickly, everyone gets back to work and the course of their life, leaving the mother alone with this newborn baby, whom she has to take care of day and night.
Fourth trimester of pregnancy: surround yourself well to live it with serenity
To recover well and live as best as possible this particular period, the ideal is to live to the rhythm of baby, especially by resting when he sleeps. On the plate, we recommend fill up with essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients, in short, to maintain a healthy and balanced diet as much as possible, to help the body to regain strength after this ordeal.
For the rest, do not hesitate, as far as possible, to solicit his entourage, family, friends or even caregivers. The few postnatal visits from a midwife can do a lot of good. As for the family, they can, rather than spoil the newborn with cuddly toys, relieve the couple on a daily basis by offering, for example, “gift vouchers” in the form of concrete help: preparing a full meal, an afternoon together, going to the cinema or something else while one of the two members of the couple looks after the baby, help with shopping … Enough to limit the risk of parental burn-out or postpartum depression.
More:
- https://www.acteurdemasante.com/le-4eme-trimestre-de-la-grossesse-une-periode-peu-connue-et-peu-preparee/