Labor Lensby LlaMamma

What is normal? — Postpartum Recovery Safety — When to Call

What's usually within range, and when to call.

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Below are common situations related to Postpartum Recovery Safety — When to Call. Each pairs a plain-language "usually within the range of normal" note with concrete signs to call your care team. If something feels wrong that isn't listed, call anyway.

  • Heavy bleeding — soaking a pad in an hour, large clots, or bleeding turning bright red after slowing

    Within the range of normal

    Lochia is heaviest the first few days, then tapers to pink and brown over 2–6 weeks. It can briefly increase after activity, breastfeeding, or the first shower.

    Call your healthcare team if

    You soak a full maxi pad in an hour, soak two pads back-to-back, pass a clot bigger than a lemon (or several egg-sized clots), feel dizzy or lightheaded, or bleeding turns bright red and heavy again after it had slowed. Call your provider or L&D; call 911 if you feel faint.

  • Fever ≥100.4°F (38°C), chills, foul-smelling discharge, or wound redness

    Within the range of normal

    Milk 'coming in' can cause a brief low-grade warmth for about a day. Mild afterpains and incision tenderness are expected.

    Call your healthcare team if

    Fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher, shaking chills, foul-smelling lochia, red streaks or increasing pain around a cesarean incision or perineal repair, or one breast that is red, hot, hard, and painful — call same day. Postpartum endometritis, wound infection, and mastitis all need timely treatment.

  • Severe headache or vision changes

    Within the range of normal

    Mild tension or dehydration headaches from sleep loss and low fluids are common and usually respond to water, food, rest, and acetaminophen.

    Call your healthcare team if

    A headache that is severe, doesn't ease with fluids and acetaminophen within a few hours, wakes you up, or comes with blurred vision, spots or flashing lights, pain under the right ribs, swelling in your face and hands, or a blood pressure reading of 140/90 or higher — go in the same day (L&D or ER, not a phone call). Late postpartum preeclampsia can develop up to 6 weeks after birth.

  • Worsening pain — pain that is increasing instead of easing, or new pain in a specific place

    Within the range of normal

    Cramping ('afterpains'), incision or perineal soreness, breast fullness, and general body aches gradually improve day by day.

    Call your healthcare team if

    Pain is getting worse instead of better, is not controlled by your prescribed plan, is one-sided in a calf (red, warm, swollen — possible DVT), is in your chest or comes with shortness of breath (possible PE — call 911), is severe abdominal or shoulder-tip pain, or centers on a wound that is getting redder, warmer, or draining. New severe pain in a specific place after things had been improving is a warning sign, not a tolerance issue.