When to seek care
Use this as a prompt to seek care, not as a diagnostic tool. If you’re unsure, contact your provider.
Generally expected
- Bleeding that gradually becomes lighter over time
- Perineal or incision discomfort that is gradually improving
- Afterpains, especially while feeding
- Fatigue and hormonal changes
- Mood swings or tearfulness that ease during the first two weeks
Contact your provider today
- Pain that is worsening rather than improving
- Fever of 38°C / 100.4°F or higher
- Redness, swelling, wound separation, or foul-smelling discharge
- Burning or difficulty passing urine
- Bleeding that becomes heavier again or concerns you
- Persistent sadness, panic, severe anxiety, or inability to sleep even when the baby sleeps
- Any symptom you’re quietly monitoring without improvement
Call emergency services or go to the ER now
- Chest pain, a fast or pounding heartbeat, severe difficulty breathing, gasping, or collapse
- A seizure, fainting, or severe dizziness
- Soaking through one or more pads in an hour, clots larger than an egg, or bleeding with weakness or dizziness
- A severe headache that doesn’t improve, particularly with vision changes
- Severe abdominal pain that doesn’t go away
- Severe nausea or vomiting with an inability to keep fluids down
- Sudden or extreme swelling of the face or hands, or a leg that’s swollen, red, warm, or painful
- Confusion, seeing or hearing things others don’t, or severe agitation
- Thoughts of harming yourself, your baby, or someone else
Tell the care team you gave birth within the past year.
Please call your local emergency number now, go to the nearest emergency department, or ask someone you trust to be physically with you.
This is general information and cannot determine what’s happening in your individual case. Follow your discharge instructions and local medical guidance. If you have thoughts of harming yourself or your baby, contact local emergency services now.
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