The 4th trimester of pregnancy: an unknown period

It would not take three, but four quarters to fully give birth to a child, both physical and psychological!This is called the concept of ‘continuum’.The point on everything that includes the 4th trimester of pregnancy.

No, you are not dreaming, and yes, you read that right: we are talking about the fourth trimester of pregnancy!However, everyone knows that a pregnancy lasts about 9 months, three quarters.When he hides behind what is called the 4th trimester of pregnancy?

After childbirth, how many weeks do we need to adapt?

When a woman is pregnant, she is one with her baby.She feeds him, rocks him, sleeps with him, moves with him, without even thinking about it or almost.The woman's body is changed and turned upside down to welcome and host this little being in the making for nine months.The fetus, meanwhile, is warm in his mother's belly.Lulled by the beating of the mother's heart and by all the noise of the organs in operation, the fetus has no effort to provide to feed, nor to regulate its temperature.

And then suddenly, the time to give birth came.Of course, we would like everything to be perfect immediately ... But it takes time for baby to get used to his new environment, that he will manage to suckle or take his bottle, and to be alone in his room, far from the one who worn it for nine months.And so that the mother's body becomes the one he was before this great adventure begins, we also have to arm himself with patience and benevolence!Many weeks, even months, are therefore necessary to adapt to this new life with baby.

4th quarter: the concept of 'continuum'

Because mom and baby both need a more or less long adaptation time to get used to this new deal, we are talking about the fourth trimester of pregnancy, or concept of continuum.Exhibited by the American author Jean Liedloff, in an essay published in 1975, the concept of the continuum consists in saying that the physical and mental proximity mother-child is necessary, both for the well-being of the mother and that of the child.

The author bases her point on the observation of tribes (the Yekwanas and the Sanemas) in the Amazon jungle.She found that the newborns spent their first months surrounded at every moment of their mother, and ended up detaching from it themselves when they were quite confident, quite comfortable with the world around them.Convinced of the benefits of the continuum between mom and baby, Jean Liedloff thus recommends the practice of cododo, portage in scarf, swaddling, skin-on, breastfeeding on demand ... all these practices that theWe sometimes group around the term of mothering, or even intensive mothering.

A pregnancy in 4 quarters with a period of re-transformation of the woman's body

Beyond this idea of mother-child continuum after birth, we are talking about 4th trimester of pregnancy also to evoke physical reality.Because if the newborn and the placenta left the mother's body well, it has not returned to its state before pregnancy.We can speak of a "postpartum" body, when the woman is neither pregnant nor "not pregnant".

The belly is still a little rounded, because the uterus only gradually resumes its place, thanks to the uterine contractions called trenches.The breasts are the target of milk, especially if the young mother is breastfeeding, and have sometimes changed size and appearance compared to pregnancy.If a cesarean took place, the scar can be painful.The belly skin is generally a little "flask" because it stretched to welcome the baby, then relaxed at once during childbirth.

As much upheavals as the woman, who has become a mom, can go through with some difficulties, especially since advertising, people magazines and whole society praise a so -called perfect body, smooth, firm, without brands, without scars, in short, without any experience.

Furthermore, if it is often the center of all the attentions of relatives when she is pregnant, the young mother sometimes feels a little lonely once baby came to the world.At birth, we only have eyes for him.And then very quickly, everyone resumes the way to work and the course of their life, leaving the isolated mother with this newborn baby of which she must take care of night and day.

Fourth trimester of pregnancy: surrounding yourself well to live it with serenity

To recover well and live this special period as well as possible, the ideal is to live at the rate of baby, especially by resting when it sleeps.On the plate, we advise to fill up on essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients, in short to maintain a healthy and balanced diet as much as possible, to help the body regain strength after this test.

For the rest, one should not hesitate, as far as possible, to solicit his entourage, his family, his friends or even the caregivers.The few postnatal visits to a midwife can do a lot of good.As for the family, it can relieve the couple on a daily basis by offering for example “gift vouchers” in the form of concrete help: the preparation of a full meal, an afternoon together, a cinema or other out while babyis in good hands, aid to do the shopping ... enough to limit the risk of parental burnout or postpartum depression.

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