The first weeks of the new baby are not as enchanted as they say. During this fourth trimester of pregnancy, the mother-child symbiosis continues through hormonal games, the adaptation of maternal sleep, emotional sensitivity, lactation (making milk) and breastfeeding (feeding a baby). Other biological and psychic projects are in progress. They are a journey towards a new balance and not a return to the previous state.

Lack of knowledge of the different aspects of this "degestation" prevents women from becoming aware of their needs and expressing them. Social pressure pushes towards a rapid return to what is referred to as “normality”, namely seduction and productivity. However, these two dynamics are diametrically opposed to post-birth realities.

This book describes everything that women (but also men and couples) go through in this fourth trimester of pregnancy, their new needs, and our need to reinvent the support of this unique time, which, sometimes lived in a relative loneliness, can reveal pre-existing personal weaknesses.

Ingrid Bayot is a midwife and trainer in perinatality and breastfeeding. Holder of a DU in human lactation and breastfeeding, she provides training in French-speaking Europe and in Quebec where she has resided since 1996.