Our Fourth Trimester | Businesses

Our Fourth Trimester

Phone: +61 419 834 214

Add/Update information

Reviews

Tags

• Businesses
• Medical and health

21.01.2022 I’ve got no problem with the rationale behind this term but the choice of words used to describe its meaning. Personally for me it conjures up images of a ‘demanding little so and so’ stomping their feet and demanding their milk. Oh wait- they can’t stomp their feet yet, their a precious little baby! Even the word feed in this context isn’t particularly helpful. Parents often feel under such pressure to feed their baby enough milk, especially with a baby who is not gaining w...eight at the expected rate. Feeding can end up feeling like a very stressful merry go round for everyone. Thankfully a far better explanation is available courtesy of The Neuroprotective Developmental Care (NDC or possums) approach Possums for Parents with Babiesthat I am accredited in. It’s frequent and flexible offering of the breast or bottle. I think the words frequent and flexible are far superior at describing how to meet a babies needs with feeding than ‘on demand’ including because; frequent feeding is normal for babies who feed for more reasons than just hunger and frequent feeding across a 24 hour period is important for establishing and maintaining breast milk supply. (*there are instances of excessive frequent feeding/marathon feeding that can occur which may require investigation from a suitably qualified and caring health professional, if your at all concerned this may be the case discuss this with one of them.) flexible because figuring out feeding involves much experimentation and It’s biologically normal for babies to feed outside of a set schedule, including for the reason that it meets many more of their needs than just hunger. And to round it all out- offering because feeling pressure to make your baby feed winds up being stressful for everyone, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, but not caring because it’s an important point! babies feed for more then just hunger. Frequent and flexible offering-anytime, no expectation, no pressure! #motherbabydyad #ourfourthtrimester #feedondemand

18.01.2022 A witch?! Really? Your beautiful baby? They’ve transformed into a witch for an hour? This brings me to an hour?! Really? When in actual fact the fussiness and desire to feed that a baby can experience later in the day can last a lot longer than an hour! This terms a double whammy of unhelpful words! I first came across it in my own fourth trimester- I found the rationale behind it reassuring but hated the actual words. I used myself as a guinea pig and changed it to my babies... ‘time of need’. What a successful experiment this was! (One that’s been repeated with similar success by many of my clients). The way I approached the situation, experienced it and moved forward shifted DRAMATICALLY. My husband and I expected it, prepared for it by making alterations with the way we did dinner (the first few nights took us by surprise and picturing my dinner growing colder and colder by the minute wasn’t helpful!) I even started looking forward to it in a way (yes oddly!) by focusing on my power as a mum, visualising all of the nurturing neural pathways that were being laid down in his brain because of the trust he was forming in me. I was there with him, in his time of need, we got through it together and I’m so thankful for that. #motherbabydyad #ourfourthtrimester #witchinghour See more

12.01.2022 Failure to thrive, like geriatric pregnancy and failure to progress is also considered to be out of date, yet it’s usage is still common place. It is instead meant to be referred to as infant who does not gain weight at the expected rate. Ask any new parent- feeding their infant is one of the most important /challenging things, I’ve witnessed countless women going to heroic extent to do so. So to hear the word failure when your in the thick of this must be devastating and so... unhelpful. I believe that words have the power to help us not only make sense of our experiences but also to help shape them - for better or worse. I’m constantly reminded of this in my work with new mothers and it’s a big part of why I wrote and illustrated Mother-Baby Dyad. So, I’ve taken 10 ‘prickly’ perinatal terms- some I don’t think are quite right, others that downright infuriate me and given them a bit of a facelift so that they are ‘preferable’ to me and maybe you?! Anyway, I’m going to be sharing one a day for the next 10 days. I’d love to know what you think- especially if you can add more of your own! *missed posting this yesterday- real life... so today posting two prickly terms! #motherbabydyad #ourfourthtrimester #failuretothrive #heroicmothers

03.01.2022 All that matters is mum and baby are safe and well. Well sure, this is very important but also important- the mother/also babies’(and even others in the birthing space) experience of the birth. This one is SO common place I even used it myself in my own birth story! (Which I later annotated). phrases like this and the ‘is he a good baby?’ become so absorbed into our vernacular. I wonder if this particular phrase stems from a part of our society, rooted in stoicism- suck it up..., walk it off champ, soldier on...We all now know about the effects of trauma on our soldiers and how important it is to treat that trauma NOT suck it up, well no surprises- it’s so important to treat birth trauma too. I heard this great description from How to Heal a Bad Birth - making sense, making peace & moving on about how ridiculous this phrase would sound if it were applied to survivors of a plane crash; sure, you feared for your life, sure you’ve sustained injuries, but all that matters is- your safe and well, that other stuff you experienced- suck it up, soldier on, walk it off champ! I believe that words have the power to help us not only make sense of our experiences but also to help shape them - for better or worse. I’m constantly reminded of this in my work with new mothers and it’s a big part of why I wrote and illustrated Mother-Baby Dyad. So, I’ve taken 10 ‘prickly’ perinatal terms- some I don’t think are quite right, others that downright infuriate me and given them a bit of a facelift so that they are ‘preferable’ to me and maybe you?! Anyway, I’m going to be sharing one a day for the next 10 days. I’d love to know what you think- especially if you can add more of your own! *missed posting this yesterday- real life... so today posting two prickly terms! #motherbabydyad #ourfourthtrimester #birthmatters #birthtraumahealing #birthtrauma

01.01.2022 Is she a ‘Good’ baby’? This one is a bit like the previous ‘all that matters is Mum and baby are safe and well’ saying. It’s so common place, we’ve grown up hearing it all our lives, so it’s not surprising that it creeps out, often when we don’t know what else to say/do. Quite often we haven’t grown up with much knowledge around what it’s like to care for a baby - for many of us the first baby we have any real role in caring for is our own. The problem with this saying is th...at It infers that there is such a thing as a bad baby, which of course sounds ridiculous at first- bad babies... out in their ski masks stealing cars...But think a little about what’s really being asked about the ‘good baby’ what you’ll invariably find are questions like are they sleeping well, eating well, relatively settled? We know this because they are usually what immediately follow the ‘is he a good baby’ question. Now put yourself in the shoes of a new parent- your in the steepest learning curve of your life, and your no doubt struggling with one or more areas in relation to sleep/feed/crying/fussing to a certain extent, causing varying degrees of distress - think of the impact that the inference ‘is she a good baby ?’ can have here-It’s anything but good... ALL babies are the purest form of good we can very safely assume this, if your really struggling with what to say to a new parent, take the pressure off yourself by offering a compliment- they rarely go astray, and try to focus a little more on listening- that’s always appreciated! I believe that words have the power to help us not only make sense of our experiences but also to help shape them - for better or worse. I’m constantly reminded of this in my work with new mothers and it’s a big part of why I wrote and illustrated Mother-Baby Dyad. So, I’ve taken 10 ‘prickly’ perinatal terms- some I don’t think are quite right, others that downright infuriate me and given them a bit of a facelift so that they are ‘preferable’ to me and maybe you?! Anyway, I’m going to be sharing one a day for the next 10 days. I’d love to know what you think- especially if you can add more of your own! #motherbabydyad #ourfourthtrimester #goodbaby

01.01.2022 Our society has a preoccupation with infant sleep that I don’t think is doing us any favors. Don’t get me wrong as a parent I’ve been TOTALLY preoccupied with my infants sleep, and thats very understandable, I just think there’s a lot that goes on to make an often already challenging situation worse. The commonly used term of sleep regression is a prime example of this because its not accurate and narrows our focus to something we perceive as a problem, rather than allowing u...s to appreciate the whole picture. Let me tackle it’s inaccuracy first, what does regression mean? It means going backwards right?! The term sleep regression as it’s commonly applied is more accurately a fluctuation. This fluctuation is particularly noticeable and can be potentially challenging at variable points across a child’s early life because of many factors, one of which I’m going to touch on below. When we widen our focus away from the sleep ‘regression’ what we invariably find / are often already aware of (thanks wonder weeks app!) is that our baby is actually going through a developmental PROgression which is so incredibly amazing! We can expect their sleep to be impacted in some way with this, In actual fact there are many things that can impact our sleep (as humans of all ages!) As I’ve touched on in all these posts, words have the ability to not only help us understand our experiences but also shape them- for better or worse... I think sleep regression is unfortunately one of those words that has a negative impact. While I do not for a second dismiss the very real difficulties associated with disrupted sleep, I can honestly tell you that many parents I know and have worked with (myself included) have benefited from: efforts to be more mindful of the progression rather than ‘regression’. practicing compassion for themselves and their baby with the sleep disruptions that are often a by product of the miraculous growth of their child’s physical, social, emotional and mental capabilities. #motherbabydyad #ourfourthtrimester #developmentalprogression #sleepregression