Postpartum care

By Mayo Clinic Staff

After months of anticipation and the rigors of labor and delivery, your attention shifts to caring for your new baby — but you also need to take care of yourself. Postpartum care might involve managing vaginal tears or a C-section wound, sore breasts, leaking milk, urination problems, and hair loss.

And postpartum care isn't limited to your physical health. Postpartum care also includes your mental well-being, such as managing mood swings, irritability, sadness and anxiety.

For the smoothest recovery, share any concerns you might have about postpartum care with your health care provider. Chances are, what you're feeling or wondering about is entirely normal. Count on your health care provider for assurance as you handle postpartum care and adjust to life with a newborn.

Sept. 04, 2019

See also

  1. Baby brain
  2. Back labor
  3. Bathroom during labor: What if you have to go?
  4. Breast-feeding and medications
  5. Breast-feeding nutrition: Tips for moms
  6. Breast-feeding support
  7. Can vaginal tears during childbirth be prevented?
  8. Cord blood banking
  9. C-section recovery
  10. Doula
  11. Eating the placenta
  12. Episiotomy
  13. Exercise after pregnancy
  14. High-risk pregnancy
  15. Home birth
  16. Hypnobirthing
  17. Inducing labor
  18. Kegel exercises
  19. Labor pain medications
  20. Labor pain options
  21. Lactation suppression
  22. Low milk supply
  23. Lower back tattoo: OK to have an epidural?
  24. Massage
  25. Returning to work after maternity leave
  26. Placenta
  27. Postpartum care: After a vaginal delivery
  28. Postpartum complications
  29. Pregnancy and breast-feeding with psoriasis
  30. Repeat C-sections
  31. Sagging breasts after breast-feeding
  32. Sex after pregnancy: Set your own timeline
  33. Signs of labor
  34. Vaginal tears in childbirth
  35. Labor positions
  36. Stages of labor and birth
  37. Tailbone pain
  38. Considering VBAC
  39. The epidural block
  40. Water breaking
  41. Weight loss after pregnancy