What support is available to mothers after childbirth (postnatal)?
Whether you have had a vaginal birth or a caesarean section, a planned birth or an emergency birth, or delivered at home or the hospital, you may have questions about your health after having a baby.
Some of the most common concerns in the post-natal period (the six weeks after having a baby) can include:
- infection in the stiches in the tummy after a caesarean section
- infection in the stiches in the perineum (the muscle area between your vagina and anus) after a vaginal delivery
- heavy or smelly vaginal bleeding
- painful/hot or lumpy breasts
- fainting or feeling short of breath
- mental health problems
However, there can be a range of ways that pregnancy can affect your body mentally and physically so it is important to feel you can access the right type of help.
Mental health concerns
It is very common for mental health to be affected after having a baby.
If you find you are struggling, or just want to talk to someone about your mental health there are four main routes:
- GP – you can make an appointment with a GP any time after having your baby – to talk about your mental health and possible ways to help
- Community midwife – your community midwife will see you the day after you return home from hospital, or the day after you have your baby if you had your baby at home. They will see you in a set schedule of appointments that they will notify you of, but you can ask for extra appointments at any time to discuss your mental health
- Health visitor – your health visitor will support you until your child is 5 years old, and can be asked for support during planned appointments or contacted between set appointments for help and guidance
- Online help and self help – online support can be found by typing your location and ‘postnatal mental health support’ into your preferred search engine. There is also a number of charities including MIND, PANDAS and The Mental Health Foundation that provide online support and resources. NHS Choices also recommends self help treatments; eg, talking with friends and family, accepting help from others and asking others for help, allowing yourself to rest when possible, doing activities you enjoy, and getting exercise and eating healthy when able. This been proven to boost your mood.
If you feel you need urgent help, or have any thoughts about hurting yourself or your baby, you should call your local maternity unit or A&E now. Most maternity units have a 24/7 maternity assessment, labour ward or on-call service that can provide advice and short term help, whilst longer term support is organised.
Physical health concerns
If you have non-urgent concerns (concerns that could be seen the next day or next appointment, for example: constipation, low iron, suspected urine infection etc), you should contact your GP who can provide advice and treatment. You can also see your community midwife who can assess you and give you recommendations, but may not be able to prescribe medicines if required.
If you have urgent pregnancy and postnatal based concerns (concerns that need to be seen the same day, such as heavy bleeding, concerns about your stiches, concerns about your breasts/nipples, fainting etc) you should contact your local maternity service.
Your local maternity service may be the labour ward or birth centre where your baby was born at. Or the hospital may have a maternity assessment centre/triage, or a postnatal ward. They should have provided you with the best contact number to call when you gave birth. But, if not, ring the labour ward or birth centre – they can transfer you to the best number.
For some concerns, you may need to go A&E (or a walk in centre) to investigate concerns that may not be due to your pregnancy (e.g. severe chest pain) and birth; as these places will have more specialist equipment and staff to check for a wider range of problems.
If you have emergency concerns, call 999.
