The 4th Trimester with Enedina Robles, LCSW

12/15/2025

Great ideas for supporting the nervous systems of littles (and adults) of all ages

12/15/2025

Love these ideas

12/10/2025

Self-care looks different as parents, AND it is still extremely crucial to prioritize. How are you practicing self-care this December?

12/09/2025

12/07/2025

A Cesarean section is the only major surgery in the world where:

🔹 Five to seven layers of tissue — skin, fat, fascia, muscle, and uterus — are carefully opened.
🔹 A new life is lifted into the world — sometimes urgently, sometimes unexpectedly.
🔹 And within hours, the mother is told to stand, walk, and care for her newborn.

Six hours after surgery where stitches, staples, and deep incisions still burn — she is expected to:

🍼 Feed her baby
🚼 Change diapers
❤️ Bond through exhaustion
🛏 Sit up despite intense abdominal pain

And while healing, her body still goes through:

⚡ Contractions as the uterus shrinks back
⚡ Hormonal surges
⚡ Breast milk production
⚡ Emotional turbulence
⚡ Sleepless nights

Yet she keeps going — even when:

💔 Laughing hurts
💔 Sneezing hurts
💔 Standing hurts
💔 Sleeping hurts
💔 Breathing hurts

Still… she does it.

Not because it’s easy.
Not because she feels ready.
But because her baby needs her.

And that — is strength.

🌷 To every C-section mom reading this:
You didn’t take the “easy way.”
You took the necessary way.
You chose life, safety, and love.

Your scar is not a mark of weakness —
✨ It is a silent badge of courage. ✨

Whether planned, emergency, or after hours of labor —
you brought a life into this world with bravery few will ever understand.

So hold your head high.
Rest when you need to.
Heal at your own pace.
And never forget:

❤️ You are strong.
❤️ You are enough.
❤️ You are a warrior.

📌 Verified medical sources used:

Mayo Clinic Obstetric Surgery Guidelines

Cleveland Clinic Birth & Recovery Data

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)

12/06/2025

Children often save their most intense emotions for their mothers because they see her as the ultimate “safe base” to release stress and be their unfiltered self, trusting her co-regulation (calming presence) to soothe their nervous system after holding it together elsewhere. Their nervous system literally attunes to the mother’s, and showing big emotions is a sign of deep trust, not defiance, indicating they feel secure enough to “fall apart”.

▶️Why this happens (The Science):
📑Safety & Trust: A child’s nervous system recognizes the mother (or primary caregiver) as the person they can fully trust to handle their big feelings without judgment or threat, allowing them to drop their guard.
📑Co-regulation: Mothers help calm a child’s distressed nervous system through mirroring (heartbeat, breath) and soothing. This teaches the child self-regulation.
📑Mirroring the Nervous System: A child’s internal state (heart rate, stress hormones) mirrors the parent’s. A mother’s calm presence is medicine; her anxiety can become the child’s “normal”.
📑The “Safe Field Effect”: When a child sees their mother, their brain gets a signal they’re safe to release pent-up emotions from school or other situations.

▶️What it looks like
📑“Saving the Worst for Last”: They might behave perfectly at school but have meltdowns at home because the tension has to go somewhere.
📑Not Misbehavior, but Release: The tantrum isn’t defiance; it’s the child letting go of stress in the one place they feel secure enough to do so.

▶️How to respond
📑Regulate Yourself First: Your calm is their medicine. Take deep breaths to signal safety.
📑Validate & Connect: Say, “You held a lot in today. It’s okay to let it out now”.
📑Offer Presence, Not Logic: Their logical brain is offline. Offer connection, gentle touch, and calm, not lectures.

Studies also show that when children don’t have this secure attachment to lean on, it negatively rewires the child’s brain.
Read more here: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250612/Unpredictable-caregiving-rewires-the-braine28099s-threat-response.aspx

11/29/2025

11/23/2025

Self-care is an act of protection for the family you are raising.

Adele’s line hits with the force of lived experience: women are praised for sacrificing everything,
then criticized the moment they draw a boundary. Generosity is expected. Exhaustion is
normalized. Self-preservation is judged.
But choosing yourself isn’t selfish.
It’s survival.
It’s clarity.
It’s the moment a woman realizes her worth isn’t measured by how much of herself she gives
away.
Every woman who has carried a family, held a community together, worked until she broke, or
kept showing up while empty — this is your reminder:
You are allowed to rest.
You are allowed to say no.
You are allowed to stop setting yourself on fire to keep other people warm.
Adele didn’t just write a quote.
She named a pattern countless women quietly endure and she handed them the language to
walk away from it.

11/19/2025

We need more help for mamas.

11/17/2025

This is why things feel heavier at times

Millennials are rewriting the rules of parenting. Over two-thirds of this generation report that they are actively trying to reparent themselves while raising their own children.

Reparenting is the process of revisiting childhood wounds, learning healthy coping mechanisms, and giving yourself the guidance or support you may have missed as a child. For many millennial parents, this happens simultaneously with the day-to-day demands of raising their kids.

Experts note that this dual approach can be both challenging and transformative. Parents are not only shaping their children’s emotional development, but also addressing their own unmet needs and patterns. By modeling self-awareness and emotional regulation, they can break cycles of trauma and create healthier family dynamics.

Being aware of your own emotional growth while parenting isn’t easy. It requires reflection, patience, and sometimes professional support. Yet the payoff is profound: children benefit from parents who understand themselves better, communicate more effectively, and create emotionally safe environments.

This is the first generation in history experiencing both forms of parenting at once. Millennials are simultaneously raising their children and themselves.