The Fourth Trimester is the 12 weeks after birth. It is not a new concept but not everyone has heard of it. It is time of big change as a baby settles into life outside the womb and mother’s journey from pregnancy to responding in a different way to the needs of their baby happens.

Birth may have been traumatic and time to recover is needed alongside the needs of the baby being met.

It can be all consuming as hormones settle, tiredness embeds and adjustments to new rhythms occur. This period is very much a time when baby and mother are inseparable.

Cultural Pressures

Lots of cultural pressures and different ways of managing a new-born begin to creep in. Social media provides an avalanche of sites and networks to join, all advocating advice and support.

It becomes all too easy for doubt to establish and yet, the mother and baby can work it out given the environmental circumstances, support and an ability to trust oneself.

Our Fourth Trimester group is a Holding Space, a safe space where whatever a new mother is feeling and experiencing is okay.

Whatever is going on – a crying baby, an exhausted mother, a happy mother, a tearful mother, a confused mother, a mother who is happy and overwhelmed at the same time! – It is ‘as it is’ and this is okay.  It will be validated.

Free of Charge

Our free of charge Fourth Trimester sessions are specifically for new mothers enabling them to meet and chat, share stories and support each other. Mothers are free to breastfeed, bottle feed, get up and rock baby, change baby, arrive early, arrive late, cry, laugh, and just be themselves.

Our Penlee practitioners are at each session to extend a warm welcome and to give guidance and information.