The Fourth Trimester discussion with Julia Moore
image shot at Aro Ha
There was a huge snowstorm the night of my third son’s birth in our home on January 26, 2009. For the next few days, as children throughout Springfield stayed home from school and the plows worked to clear the streets, I cuddled up with my newborn under a cozy down blanket and slept. Smells of stews delivered by our Caribbean neighbors filled the air and I could hear the pitter patter of my children’s feet throughout the house but I didn’t move from my bed for four full days.
To nearly every postpartum cultural tradition around the world, four days is merely a drop in the bucket. In Mexico, La Cuarentena is a forty day post-birth recovery period. During those four to six weeks, the new mother doesn’t leave her home or do any housework. Family members and neighbors come daily to cook, clean, and hold the baby, so she can rest, breastfeed, and heal. Similarly, in Somalia and the Congo, women do not leave the house with their newborn until at least a month after the birth. In India, the postpartum time is called “the sacred window,” and the new mother with her newborn goes to live in her own mother’s home for at least 6 weeks. In Korea, new mothers are given a massage every day for forty days to help restore organ position and circulation. In Nepal and Taiwan and other Asian countries, women’s postpartum bellies are intricately wrapped for healing and these wraps themselves prevent significant or strenuous movement of any kind, therefore encouraging rest. In many Native American tribes, ceremony around the “lying in” period after birth includes ritualistic baths and sweat lodges to relax and release toxins from the body. In modern Netherlands, every mother is given a professional maternity nurse who regularly monitors her well-being, teaches her basic skills of mothering, and takes over household chores for 8-10 days after the birth. The list of postpartum practices globally continues on – but all include time, rest, and family and community support.
What are the practices here in the United States? Most mothers would laugh at this question. Truthfully, by the fourth day postpartum (not the fortieth day!) many of us are in the aisles of the Big Y, cleaning the house or driving the older kids to their basketball practice.
Pregnancy generally is understood as a three trimester phenomenon and much of our mental and practical preparation focuses on the event of giving birth and taking care of the baby. But there is a growing awareness of the importance of planning for and attention to the mother during the period of time after giving birth, the newly named “fourth trimester.” Why is this important? Studies have shown that stress and overwhelm are the leading contributors to postpartum depression. Lactation experts insist that breastfeeding success is critically dependent on sufficient rest and time for baby and mom to practice nursing. Both doctors and midwives assert that physical healing from either vaginal or cesearean birth is greatly facilitated by rest and good nutrition.
What are the guides from our own ancestors and the ancestors around the world about long-term healing from the birth of a child? How realistic and desirable is it to integrate these into our modern lives? What are the benefits? What are the obstacles? Come grapple with these questions while we all learn about deep postpartum healing – physical, emotional, spiritual - at the November Springfield Community Birth Circle, with Postpartum Planning speaker, Julia Moore. All are welcome. For zoom link, please contact springfieldfamilydoulas.com or email springfieldbirthoptions@gmail.com.