FOURTH TRIMESTER MEDICINE

Eva Zasloff MD is a board certified family doctor trained in pediatrics and women’s health who focuses on the fourth trimester. She is the founder of Tova Health and the Fourth Trimester Newborn & Maternal Care model created in 2016, that has now cared for over 600 families in the greater Boston area.

THE FOURTH TRIMESTER NEWBORN & MATERNAL CARE MODEL

The Fourth Trimester Newborn & Maternal Care Model provides newborn and maternal care together, at home, during the first weeks of life. It was established in Arlington, MA in 2016 by Eva Zasloff, MD, founder of Tova Health.

In the standard U.S. approach, a newborn is brought to a pediatric office within days of birth, and the mother is often not seen until a single postpartum visit weeks later. In this model, one clinician comes to the home and cares for both — comprehensive medical care in the home to allow for healing, bonding, and decreased illness exposure, with a holistic and integrative approach.

Home visits. About four home visits in the first two months postpartum, with the option to add on virtual visits as needed. During these visits, both pediatric and maternal care is provided.

Care for the baby. Pediatric newborn care, which includes well child visits, follow ups and treatment for all manner of health challenges in the first two months of life, with referrals for testing and specialists as needed. Families transfer care to their long term pediatrician starting at the two month well visit, with a coordinated transition of care.

Maternal care. Each home visit begins with checking on maternal wellness — including milk supply concerns, breast infections, and postpartum mood concerns — and issues are either addressed or referred to the birthing team as appropriate. Families continue to follow up with their OB/GYN team or midwives as scheduled.

Community. Weekly fourth trimester group visits bring families together to share questions, birth stories and discussion as a community.

Covered by insurance. All services are billed using standard billing codes and have been successfully reimbursed for thousands of visits by both private and public health insurance plans.

The goal is to rethink how care is provided in the U.S. for postpartum families, and to help current practices and providers reimagine how to deliver care during this important time of life.

Tova Health
The model, for practices and providers
Questions families ask

BACKGROUND

Dr. Zasloff has published various articles on pediatric and postpartum issues for both popular magazines and academic publications including research from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Boston Children’s Hospital. She was featured in an article about rethinking postpartum care in the Boston Globe magazine during the pandemic. She is a co-author in Rakel’s Integrative Medicine textbook 2nd edition on chapters related to pregnancy and postpartum.

She was honored to be on the advisory board for the 2018 MIT Media Lab Breastpump Hackathon where leaders in science, innovation, and policy came together to brainstorm ways to improve breastfeeding, equity and maternity rights in our country.

During medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, in addition to training as a doula and giving birth to her first child, Dr. Zasloff was awarded the FOCUS Women’s Health Leadership grant. With guidance from the nonprofit literacy branch of What to Expect When You Are Expecting, she created a pregnancy education and creative exploration program for pregnant teens.

After medical school, Dr. Zasloff spent a year in Stockholm doing research on the postpartum experience at the Karolinska Institute with Ulla Waldenstrom, one of the founding midwives of the Swedish birth center movement. She also gave birth to her second child there! After returning back to the U.S., she completed a family medicine residency at Tufts/Cambridge Health Alliance where she focused her training on pediatrics, delivering babies and learning to care for the whole family in a holistic way.

Dr. Zasloff then spent many years working as a doctor at a family medicine practice in Somerville, MA. During that time, she gave birth at home to her third child and found particular wonder in caring for newborn babies and postpartum women. She felt struck by the incredible power and biology of the fourth trimester, but also disappointed in our current U.S. standard of care for this important life moment. In 2016, she created this practice and new model of care in order to attempt to innovate and rethink how we currently care for mothers and newborns.

PRESS

The ‘fourth trimester’ and plight of new mothers during a pandemic
The Boston Globe Magazine, by Nicole Graev Lipson. May 6, 2020

Reclaiming Postpartum: A New (Old) Model of Mama + Baby Care
On Health: A Podcast for Women, with Aviva Romm, MD. May 21, 2025

Thinker Spotlight: Eva Zasloff
Thinkers Who Mother, by Nicole Graev Lipson. May 2023

Preparing For Baby’s First Weeks
Mother Magazine, by Eva Zasloff, MD. February 2018