The Fourth Trimester: Keeping Baby Close

While reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin, I ran across the term "fourth trimester." Doing some research on the term, I found that it originated from Dr. Harvey Karp, who wrote Happiest Baby on the Block, which I haven't had the pleasure of reading. I pondered what this term meant and felt that I certainly could relate to it.

The idea of the fourth trimester suggests a period of transition between the womb and the outside world where the baby gets used to his new experiences and learns to trust his caregivers. Dr. Harvey Karp suggests that the easiest way to help a newborn transition is to make his world as "womblike" as possible in the few months following birth. This idea seems to run counter to the "typical" ways that some parents approach newborn care in the early days. My own instincts as a new mother seemed to baffle me in that way, as I felt that nothing I did was on-target with the societal norms for taking care of newborns.

When my children were born, my first instinct was to hold them as close to me as possible for as long as possible. One of the most startling emotional sensations I had when they were born was this strong sense of empathy for how those tiny babies were feeling in their first days in the outside world. I thought, 'This has to be a scary time for them. They have left everything they have ever known and emerged into a completely foreign world surrounded by nothing they have ever experienced before.' I had this overwhelming urge to protect them from these feelings of fear and yes, most likely trauma, as they adjusted to the world outside the womb.

Keeping my babies close came naturally to me. I figured out early on that the notion of putting baby in the crib to sleep felt unnatural to say the least. I found that my babies and I were most calm when they were held next to me, and I spent a great deal of those first few months with those little guys in my arms constantly. I began co-sleeping with my oldest early on and carried the tradition forward with my youngest as well. I found that they needed the comfort of my presence to help them sleep at night and I, admittedly, needed their presence to feel less anxious as well.

Dr. Karp emphasizes the idea of the five S's in order to help soothe babies' crying - swaddling, side or stomach position, shushing sounds, swinging, and sucking. I think all of these ideas have their merit, but I think that you can sum it all up in a word - presence. Babies need the presence of their significant others to feel secure. They need attentiveness to their needs with a mind for their comfort in a world so new to them.

Resources:

http://www.parentmap.com/article/babys-fourth-trimester-helping-your-baby-make-a-peaceful-transition-from-womb-to-world

Gaskin, I.M. (2003). Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. Bantam Dell: New York.

Karp, H., M.D. (2003). The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer. Bantam Books Trade Paperbacks: New York.