After your baby is born, there are many different health concerns that can crop up – not just for your baby, but for you as well. Knowing what kinds of signs and symptoms to watch for in terms of your postpartum health is key to staying healthy and staying on top of things during those first few days and weeks of your baby’s life.

If you’re not healthy, you can’t expect to properly care for your baby. You need to make sure that you’re in as good health as possible, and that any potential health problems are properly addressed. You need to look for specific symptoms, too.

Here are some of the symptoms that should lead to a call to your doctor after your baby is born:

• You have a fever of 100.4 degrees or higher, without any indication of why.
• You pass large clots, or if you soak up an entire sanitary napkin in less than an hour.
• If you had a C-section, the incision area becomes red, swollen, or starts to drain.
• If you had an episiotomy, and the incision area becomes red, swollen, or starts to drain.
• You feel pain in your legs, or they become suddenly swollen or tender.
• Your breasts become warm to the touch, or they start to bleed.
• Your discharge changes to a foul smell.
• Urination suddenly becomes painful, or you experience a great degree of incontinence.
• You have chest pains, vomiting, nausea, or severe cough.
• You become severely depressed, or start to experience visual or auditory hallucinations.
• You experience thoughts of harming yourself, your baby, or someone else.

The good news is that most postpartum health issues can be resolved fairly quickly. If left untreated, some of these symptoms can lead to serious problems. Deadly infections, postpartum psychosis, heart problems, respiratory problems, and more can all be life-threatening. If you have any of the symptoms above during your postpartum days and weeks, call your doctor right away. If you can’t get ahold of your doctor, it’s worth making a trip to the emergency room.

Posted in Postpartum

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