Settling Your Newborn Baby & the Missing Fourth Trimester

Congratulations on the birth of your newborn baby! With the arrival of a newborn baby comes a wave of new experiences and for much for the missing “fourth trimester” new parents are taking the time to get to know their new little bundle of love, differentiating their needs, their cries and what works best for them and your family.

What is the Missing “Fourth Trimester”?

The Missing Fourth Trimester is a period coined by Dr Harvey Karp as the first three months of a baby’s life after birth. Dr Karp has observed that human newborns are born quite immature, born more like a foetus than an infant, spending most of their time sleeping and being fed. Dr Karp believes that should we delay delivering our babies just three months more, they would be born with the ability to smile, coo and flirt. So why are our babies so immature at birth? Dr Karp supposes that the reason is simple. A baby’s brain is so large that we must “evict” them from the womb well before they are ready for the world to keep their heads from getting stuck in the birth canal.

So why is this relevant to settling a newborn baby? Well, the missing fourth trimester makes babies vulnerable to the external world and every day life. Therefore, there comes a yearning for the sensations of the womb. In a mother’s womb, the baby is packed tight into the foetal position, rocked and jiggled for much of the day, has an endless source of food and are comforted by the constant shushing sounds from inside their mother’s body.

This is why much of the most effective settling techniques for a newborn mimic the conditions experienced in utero.

Settling Your Newborn Baby with The Five S’s

When you have an unsettled newborn, you will undoubtedly run through the list of possible causes:

·       Are they hungry?

·       Are they wet?

·       Are they gassy?

·       Are they hot or cold?

·       Do they want your comfort?

Once you have determined that you have addressed all the possible reasons for their unsettled behaviour, there are some little tricks that can help you to calm a fussy unsettled newborn, commonly referred to as The Five S’s.

When carried out in combination, these Five S’s can switch on the calming reflex and soothe even the fussiest newborn babies. These are: (1) Swaddling, (2) Side Settling, (3) Shushing, (4) Swinging and (5) Sucking. Let’s look at these in more detail;

1.       Swaddling

A tight swaddle of a newborn baby is the cornerstone of calming and the essential first step in soothing a newborn. The technique of swaddling a newborn makes your baby feel magically returned to the womb and satisfies their longing for the continuous touching and tight fit of your uterus. Skin is the body’s largest organ and touch is the most calming of our senses. Swaddling envelopes your baby’s body with a continuous soft caress. Whilst a swaddle is not as rich an experience for your baby as being cuddled, it is a strong substitute for those times they are not in your arms.

2.       Side Settling

Placing your newborn in the side position will instantly shut off the Moro Reflex – otherwise known as the startle reflex; an involuntary motor response that infants develop shortly after birth.

Placing a newborn baby on their back will trigger the brain’s position sensor and unleash the Moro Reflex, sometimes making your baby shriek and fling their arms out as if they are being dropped. Placing your baby on their side makes the position sensors in their head send out a calming response. Given the risks of SIDS, babies should only sleep on their backs so the side settling technique should be used to calm a baby in your arms or the cot, but the position should be changed once a baby is put to sleep.

3.       Shushing

The sound of shushing imitates your baby’s experience inside the womb - like that of whooshing blood flowing through your arteries, and as a result, switches on their calming reflex. You will likely need continuous moderate white noise to keep your newborn from returning to crying. Your baby is used to this loud sound 24/7, so needing it for a few hours or even all night long, is completely normal.

4.       Swinging

Swinging motions that mimic the jiggling your baby felt inside the womb, turns on the motor sensors in their ears, which activates the calming reflex. Swinging refers to the manner of rhythmic actions, from patting to car rides, to walking with your baby in a baby carrier. In particular, when babies are fussy, vigorous tiny movements calm them much faster than slow, broad swinging.

5.       Sucking

A baby’s survival outside of the comb depends on their ability to suck. Sucking makes babies feel extraordinarily good for two reasons: it satisfies their hunger, and it turns on their calming reflex. Feeding and offering a pacifier are extremely effective ways to turn on the calming reflex.