Postpartum, often referred to as the 4th trimester or postnatal period, is a transitional period between birth and 12 weeks postpartum, during which your baby is adjusting to the world and you to your baby.

Medical professionals see it as potentially a physically and mentally taxing time for parents and a period of major developmental changes for your baby. Doctors encourage parents to think of their babies as fetuses living outside the womb for the three months of their lives, where the learning curve is steep for parents to master swaddling skills and distinguish hunger cries from those of discomfort. And then on top of that, the birth parents may be contending with postpartum pain, breastfeeding challenges, sleeplessness, initial baby blues and fluctuating hormones. 

The focus is on the baby, with regular check-ups to ensure that baby is meeting all their milestones. As for mothers, their routine postpartum visit is scheduled for six to eight weeks after childbirth.

The fact is that the focus should be on caring for and supporting the new mother.

A new mother should be pampered and mothered, just like the baby.