The Fourth Trimester Companion

The only book devoted to the full spectrum of the new mother's needs after the birth of a baby, covering medical, emotional, psychological, family, and marital issues and concerns.

A guide to help support women through post-partum healing on the physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual levels. This holistic guide offers practical advice to support women through postpartum healing on the physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual levels—and provides women with a roadmap to this very important transition that can last from a few months to a few years. Kimberly Ann Johnson draws from her vast professional experience as a doula, postpartum consultant, yoga teacher, body worker, and women’s health care advocate, and from the healing traditions of Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, and herbalism—as well as her own personal experience—to cover • how you can prepare your body for birth; • how you can organize yourself and your household for the best possible transition to motherhood; • simple practices and home remedies to facilitate healing and restore energy; • how to strengthen relationships and aid the return to sex; • learning to exercise safely postpartum; • carrying your baby with comfort; • exploring the complex and often conflicting emotions that arise postpartum; • and much more.

Becoming a mother is radical, powerful, shocking, redemptive, and ripe for insights. This journal is a tangible place to collect thoughts and images during the postpartum period, to help explore, work with, and record the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of each new mother's personal journey. This beautiful keepsake journal is a perfect place to be honest about the highs and lows of becoming a mother. As new mothers navigate the challenges, changes, emotional intensity, and personal growth possibilities of the postpartum period, The Fourth Trimester Journal is an invitation to anchor into the present moment and to spark inspiration and insight. It offers a structured way to record thoughts, feelings, and impressions, while also offering encouragement, grounding exercises, and warm, relatable advice to help support postpartum healing. With powerful artwork by Joanna Johnson and insights, prompts, and grounding meditations from Kimberly Ann Johnson, a certified Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, and bestselling author of the Fourth Trimester, this journal is a trustworthy companion as new mothers forge and walk the path of the mundane to the sacred all at the same time.

A well-cared-for baby is a baby whose mother is taking care of herself. With this truth at its core, The Fourth Trimester Companion supports your transition to motherhood. You have probably already read multiple books on pregnancy, childbirth, and infant care as you prepare to become a mother, but have you considered how you are going to care for yourself after your baby is born? With so much focus on the birthing process and the new baby, your own birth as a mother is often overlooked. Doctors, nurses, midwives, and others involved in providing baby care agree that your own transition deserves equal attention, because taking good care of yourself in the first three months of your new baby’s life—the fourth trimester—brings crucial benefits for you, for your baby, and for your partner and family. With this important book, you (as well as your partner and other caregivers, whether lay or professional) now have the resources to have an ideal fourth trimester experience. Cynthia Gabriel, a doula and the author of the best-selling book Natural Hospital Birth, delivers all the information, guidance, and encouragement you need as a new mother to take care of your body, mind, and spirit during the vital months of the fourth trimester—so that you feel your best and so your baby has the best possible chance to thrive. Find tips, strategies, and advice for: Coping with the physical and emotional challenges in the first days and weeks post-partum Sleep challenges and solutions for both you and baby Self-care, infant care, and infant feeding, including breastfeeding and going back to work Navigating your changing relationships with your immediate family, partner, children, parents, in-laws, and pets Finding your new, postpartum sex life Emotional well-being, including postpartum depression and PTSD Appreciate the wondrous moments as a new mother and feel less alone with the challenging ones with The Fourth Trimester Companion.

The first three months of a baby’s life is an outside-the-uterus period of intense development, a biological bridge from fetal life to preparation for the real world. The fourth trimester has more in common with the nine months that came before than with the lifetime that follows. This comprehensive, intimate, and much-needed “operating manual” for newborns presents a new paradigm of a baby's early life that shifts our focus and alters our priorities. Combining the latest scientific findings with real-life stories and experiences, Susan Brink examines critical dimensions of newborn development such as eating and nutrition, bonding and attachment, sleep patterns, sensory development, pain and pleasure, and the creation of foundations for future advancement. Brink offers well-informed, practical information and the reasons behind her advice so that parents and caretakers can make their own decisions about how to care for a newborn during this crucial period. The Fourth Trimester assures readers that infants are as biologically capable as they are physically helpless. They thrive on what is readily available in every household: consistent, loving attention.

Experienced doula, Linsey Bliss, shows you how to prepare physically and mentally for every element of having a child, from pregnancy to fourth trimester in The Doula's Guide to Empowering Your Birth. Lindsey Bliss, who has assisted as a doula at hundreds of births and is herself a mother of seven, reveals here all the wisdom and advice that doulas share with the new mothers who hire them. The Doula's Guide to Empowering Your Birth covers the period from pregnancy through labor and birth to fourth trimester healing. The focus, however, is on preparing for birth--including topics like how to pick the right childbirth class and the right birthing method. You’ll also see how to assemble the team of professionals, family members, and friends who will support you through labor and birth, and how to approach last-minute decisions about pain medications and cesarean sections. Bliss's tone throughout is at once authoritative and confident as well as warm and encouraging. Her concern in her practice as well as in these pages is to listen to and help secure each new mom's own personal vision of a birthing experience that is safe, fulfilling, and meaningful.