By Georgia Hartmann
Often we spend our pregnancy preparing for labour, birth and life postpartum. We spend months speaking about essential oils and mucus during labour, prams, car seats, bassinets and carriers. Albeit important, we often neglect discussing the Fourth Trimester.
The fourth trimester is the first 12 weeks post-birth.
It’s a time of great physical and emotional change. During this time, the mother and child build a nurturing relationship, you find your rhythm and start to become comfortable with feeding.
It’s important to remember – breastfeeding does not always come naturally. We don’t always know what to do when our baby cries, or how to settle our baby. Sometimes we figure these things out, and sometimes we don’t. Whether we do or not, the fourth trimester is all about finding your feet in this new role as a mother.
It’s a time of great physical and emotional change. During this time, the mother and child build a nurturing relationship, you find your rhythm and start to become comfortable with feeding.
Many of you know my journey to motherhood. After a diagnosis of Premature Ovarian Failure in my early twenties, I was told I’d never be able to conceive naturally. Well, once I overcame that, I faced my next challenge of a long labour. I was in labour for 3-blissfully-wonderful-days and in active labour for seventeen hours. Once our firstborn, Otto, arrived, we had a baby with 100% tongue tie who lost a lot of weight in his first week. We also had a mother with an incredibly low milk supply (I pumped a total of 3mL in a 24-hour period) coupled with sky-rocketing anxiety.
Based on my own experience, here are my top tips for mothers preparing for the fourth trimester
Commit to doing a birthing course.
I recommend the detailed birthing classes Hypnobirthing, Calm Birth and She Birth (if you’re in Australia). Or the birthing classes provided by your local hospital are great for learning the basics. If possible, ensure your birthing partner joins you as you will both gain such clarity around the birthing experience and will be confident and fully equipped to make informed decisions throughout the process.
Build a team of health professionals around you.
You may not always need them, but if you do, you don’t want to be running around trying to find medical support in the newborn haze. During your pregnancy, you will become familiar with your Doctor, Midwife and Obstetrician. Some other health professionals to consider are…
Naturopath
A naturopath will assess your nutritional needs, help you manage feelings of overwhelm, anxiety, stress, depression and fatigue, support your breastfeeding journey, and assess any additional needs for baby. As a guide, I like to see new mothers in each trimester and follow up with them within the first two weeks after birth. We meet again at six weeks to do any additional testing to ensure nutritional and metabolic health are optimised.
