Recovery after birth
Bleeding, blood pressure, warning signs and checks for the mother after birth.
Care topics 2
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The care a woman gets in the weeks after giving birth. WHO recommends regular checks of bleeding, temperature and pulse from the first hour after birth, with blood pressure measured shortly after...
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Symptoms in the weeks and months after birth that need urgent care. This page does not list them, because the CDC page that does refused automated access and the nurses' programme that teaches them...
Conditions 2
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High blood pressure that is still present in the weeks and months after a baby is born. After a pregnancy with pre-eclampsia or gestational hypertension, some women still need blood pressure medicine...
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Heavy bleeding after a baby is born. It is one of the most common complications of childbirth. It is also a leading cause of death for mothers worldwide, and most of those deaths happen in low- and...
Drugs 2
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Carbetocin is a uterotonic, like oxytocin: a medicine that makes the womb contract. It is given as an injection right after birth to prevent heavy bleeding. The heat-stable form does not need a...
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Tranexamic acid is a medicine that reduces bleeding by blocking the breakdown of blood clots. This atlas meets it in two separate roles, kept on separate pages: to treat heavy bleeding after birth...
Fronts 1
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Pages about medicines and vaccines given in pregnancy, at birth, after birth or to the baby. Each page says who receives it, the mother or the baby.
Interventions 8
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Measuring your own blood pressure at home after birth and following an app that suggests changes to blood pressure medicine, with doctors checking the readings and approving the changes. It was...
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A follow-up check after birth for type 2 diabetes in a woman who had gestational diabetes. A large 2020 review found that women who had gestational diabetes were much more likely than other women to...
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After the baby is born, the womb has to contract firmly to stop bleeding. A medicine that makes it contract is called a uterotonic. WHO recommends that every woman who gives birth is offered one...
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Measuring the blood a woman loses after birth with a tool, instead of judging it by eye. WHO recommends doing this for every woman giving birth, and uses measured amounts in its criteria for deciding...
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A package for hospitals. Staff measure blood loss at vaginal births with a calibrated drape, and when heavy bleeding is detected they start a standard set of treatments straight away. The set covers...
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A medicine given into a vein, on top of usual care, to women who are bleeding heavily after birth. It works by slowing the breakdown of blood clots. In the WOMAN trial it lowered deaths from bleeding...
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Tranexamic acid is a medicine that helps blood clots last. Given early, it lowers deaths from bleeding in women who are already bleeding heavily after birth. This page is about a different use...
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Devices placed inside the uterus (womb) after birth to control or reduce postpartum bleeding when conservative management is warranted, as their US clearances word it. One kind uses a balloon filled...
Products 2
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A silicone balloon on a catheter that is placed inside the uterus (womb) after birth and expanded with fluid so it presses on the uterine walls. In the United States the FDA cleared it, and a version...
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A device placed inside the uterus (womb) after birth that uses vacuum, instead of a filled balloon, to press on the uterine walls. In the United States, FDA cleared it in 2020, an updated version in...
Technologies 1
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A drape used at vaginal birth that collects the blood and carries volume markings, so the amount lost can be measured instead of guessed by eye.
Care pathways 1
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The steps an international guideline sets out for the first six weeks after birth for a healthy woman and baby: at least 24 hours of care in the facility after a facility birth, checks of the woman...
Risk factors 1
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A short gap between one pregnancy and the next. A 2006 review of studies found higher odds of preterm birth, low birth weight and a smaller baby than expected for the time in pregnancy when the gap...
Guidelines 4
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A 2018 opinion on postpartum care from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, published in the journal Obstetrics and gynecology. This atlas lists it as a reference only and does...
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The 2025 WHO guidelines on preventing, finding and treating heavy bleeding after childbirth. They bring recommendations together in one set, which WHO published with the International Federation of...
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The NICE guideline on diagnosing and managing high blood pressure in pregnancy, first published in June 2019 and last updated in April 2023.
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The 2022 WHO guideline on routine care for mothers and babies in the weeks after birth, in any country and any setting. It brings together 63 recommendations on care of the mother, care of the...
Outcomes 2
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Whether the mother died and the cause recorded was bleeding. In WOMAN this was the main cause-specific death outcome.
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The death of a woman during pregnancy or in the period after it ends, from a cause linked to the pregnancy. WHO and CDC count different time windows: WHO counts deaths up to 42 days after the...
Publications 2
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The main report of the WOMAN trial of tranexamic acid for bleeding after birth, published in The Lancet in 2017.
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The main report of the WOMAN-2 trial of tranexamic acid to prevent bleeding after birth in women with anaemia, published in The Lancet in 2024.
Studies 5
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A large trial in 10 countries that compared a heat-stable form of carbetocin with oxytocin, each given by injection right after a vaginal birth, to prevent heavy bleeding. Heat-stable carbetocin was...
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A large trial in 80 hospitals in four African countries that tested a package for heavy bleeding after vaginal birth: a blood-collection drape to measure bleeding early, a bundle of first treatments...
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A UK trial in women who had high blood pressure in pregnancy and still needed blood pressure medicine when they left hospital. Half used a home blood pressure monitor and a phone app, with doctors...
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A large trial that tested whether tranexamic acid, added to usual care, helps women who are bleeding heavily after giving birth. About 20 000 women in 193 hospitals in 21 countries took part. Neither...
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A large international trial in women with moderate or severe anaemia who gave birth vaginally. About 15,000 women were given either tranexamic acid or a dummy treatment (placebo) right after the...
Organizations 6
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An organisation in Washington, DC, in the United States. Its name is on the title of Committee Opinion No. 736 on postpartum care. Its guidance is listed as a reference only here.
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A US nonprofit organisation for nurses in women's health, obstetric and neonatal care. It runs the POST-BIRTH Warning Signs Education Program, an online course and set of program materials about...
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A private foundation that funds global health research.
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An international professional body that WHO names as co-publisher of the 2025 WHO consolidated guidelines on postpartum haemorrhage, with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
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An international professional body that WHO names as co-publisher of the 2025 WHO consolidated guidelines on postpartum haemorrhage, with the International Confederation of Midwives.
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The United Nations agency for international public health.
Resources 1
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A US survey system, run by the CDC with state health departments, that asks women who recently had a baby what they did, thought and went through before, during and shortly after pregnancy...
Reading paths 2
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A suggested order for reading this atlas, from before pregnancy through birth to a baby’s first months. Each step points to one page and says in plain words what that page covers. It is a reading...
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A suggested order for reading about the weeks after birth. It starts with postnatal care, then warning signs, bleeding, blood pressure and mood, and ends with feeding and the baby's first checks. It...
Bottlenecks 2
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A 2017 report says the strong focus on women's health during pregnancy is not matched by care after birth, which comes late and rarely. It says that for most American women no follow-up is scheduled...
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Heavy bleeding after birth is often missed or noticed late when blood loss is judged by eye, which is frequently inaccurate. The response WHO now recommends is to measure blood loss objectively and...
Roadmaps 1
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A 2015 WHO strategy for ending preventable maternal deaths. It sets a global target of fewer than 70 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births on average by 2030, and says no country should have a...