今年5月，27岁的索拉纳文泽尔生下第四个孩子后，一本粉红色的小日记成了她生活中必不可少的一部分。
文泽尔说，生完孩子后我的感觉，我的进步，以及我是如何做出改变的——光是那本小书就为我做了很多。
这本日记是她第四阶段分娩箱中的12个项目之一，这是一个精心策划的护理包，旨在满足那些刚刚分娩的人的身体和情感需求。这些盒子按分娩方式分类，包括乳头药膏、哺乳茶、产后卫生巾和背部和核心支撑的腹部包裹物。
在2021年3月推出该品牌之前，联合创始人娜娜埃西翁-阿基沃沃和玛西娅科尔花了9个月的时间进行焦点小组讨论，并与母亲、分娩专业人员和其他医学专家进行咨询，以确定产后期间哪些项目最重要。第四阶段背后的意图是为新父母创造专门的时间，这在照顾新生儿时变得尤为困难。
她在谈到新妈妈时说，她们空空如也，付出又付出。他们什么也没有留给自己，然后整个事情就爆炸了。
第四阶段对孕产妇健康和福祉的承诺超越了出生后的盒子eyeon-akiwow和科尔一直在请求将"第四个三个月"这一术语添加到所有词典中。她们的努力始于2021年5月的在线活动，这些女性为她们的change.org竞选活动收集签名，并在社交媒体帖子中为世界上最受尊敬的词典贴标签。今年10月，韦氏词典宣布"第四个三个月"成为新增加的词汇，定义为"分娩后的三个月，在此期间，母亲通常会从分娩中恢复过来，并适应照顾婴儿。"
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Why Adding Fourth Trimester to the Dictionary Matters
生完孩子后支持妈妈的七种方式第四个三个月是以荷尔蒙变化、适应新的家庭责任为标志的时期
overwhelming emotions as new parents seek to manage both stress and expectations, says Kimberly Harper, RN, with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's 4th Trimester Project. "Motherhood should not mean risking your health, happiness, or life," says Harper, quoting a mantra from the 4th Trimester project.
Support for new parents, she adds, looks like holistic, wraparound care, to set them up for success both physically and emotionally. Harper and other birthing professionals say adding the term "fourth trimester" to all dictionaries assists in ongoing efforts to better support birthing people in their respective postpartum journeys.
"If someone were to Google 'the fourth trimester,' if they were able to have that definition come up for them and be as accessible as possible, I think that a lot of people would feel less alone in that life stage," says Davinah Simmons, owner of Rooted Birth Doula Services in Seattle. "And I think there would be some validation when you think of this from a capitalistic perspective. If something is in the dictionary, then it has meaning to certain dominate cultures."
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Support in the Fourth Trimester Can Make All the Difference
The fourth trimester is still not a very well-known term, but it should be, notes Tia Welsh, M.D., MPH, an OB-GYN based in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
To optimize postpartum care, Dr. Welsh believes new parents should come back in for their post-birth appointment at three weeks, which is something she plans to advocate for in her new role as chair of women's health for Valley Medical Group.
The traditional six- to eight-week timeline lies on the latter end of the fourth trimester, and doctors are missing crucial opportunities to check in with their patients and monitor how they're adjusting, adds Dr. Welsh.
This aligns with new guidance from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that encourages postpartum care to be "an ongoing process, rather than a single encounter" and "should include a full assessment of physical, social, and psychological well-being."
Efforts to place importance on healing and support in the fourth trimester come at a time when the U.S. is tackling a maternal health crisis, which is disproportionately affecting Black and Indigenous women. Also impacting postpartum care is access to paid maternity/paternity leave, says Harper. About 1 in 4 employed women in the U.S. return to work within 10 days of giving birth, many having to minimize their own health needs in order to provide for their family, she says.
Families have also been taught a cultural norm that after the six-week mark postpartum, "the bumper lanes are off," says Simmons.
- RELATED: What Postpartum Recovery Is Really Like
"It's like, you are released back into the world, and you can have sex, you can move your body and exercise," she says. "It's a way that we do families a disservice from getting adequate rest and getting adequate support during those first three months of a baby's life."
New moms who've enjoyed the offerings of the Fourth Phase Boxes say they're thankful that Eyeson-Akiwowo and Cole chose to support them in this way, with a reminder of the importance of self-care in the postpartum process. That includes Genevieve Alcinay, a mother who was gifted a Fourth Phase Box right before the birth of her twins in April.
One of her favorite items was the postpartum full-coverage underwear. Instead of the stark-white, standard ones she received from the hospital, the Fourth Phase panties were all-black. It was this "little touch of luxury"—something as simple as swapping out underwear—that Alcinay says made her fourth trimester brighter.
"It was beyond the product," she says. "It was knowing that other women needed this product, so someone developed it because they identified that we deserve to feel good, even in this process."
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