Maternal & Newborn Atlas
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Warning signs after birth

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 is copyrighted. MedlinePlus points to a CDC page of urgent maternal warning signs. WHO says women should be told to watch for worsening perineal or uterine pain, which can signal complications such as infection.

  • Care topic
  • In this atlas

Overview

Technical summary

No list of maternal warning signs is recorded. The CDC Hear Her page that MedlinePlus links returned HTTP 403 to a script, and the AWHONN POST-BIRTH page offers its program materials under a permissions policy, so neither was read beyond the program description. What is recorded: WHO's remarks that women should be advised on danger signs including worsening perineal and uterine pain (examples, not a full list), and the list of danger signs for the newborn in WHO Recommendation 25, which is on the postnatal care page. US surveillance finds pregnancy-related deaths up to 1 year after delivery (see the outcome page). The AWHONN page is cite-only here.

Scope

Urgent symptoms of the mother in the year after birth; the list of signs themselves is not recorded.

Life stages
  • Postpartum
Care setting
Not reported

Claims and evidence

Context Women after birth, remarks beside WHO 2022 recommendations 4 and 6

Recipient
Maternal
Population
Women after birth who have perineal pain or pain from uterine cramping. The statements are remarks the guideline group added beside its recommendations on perineal pain relief and on pain from uterine cramping.
Care setting
Facility- or community-based postnatal care
Geography
Global (WHO guidance)
Life stage
The weeks after birth
Gestational age
Not reported
Postnatal age
Not reported
Follow-up
Not applicable: guideline remarks
Eligibility: 1 inclusion criterion; 1 exclusion criterion
Included
  • Women after birth
Excluded
  • Not stated in the source

  • Description Guidance Certainty not assessed

    In remarks beside two recommendations, on perineal pain relief and on pain from uterine cramping, WHO says women should be told about danger signs and symptoms. Its examples are worsening perineal pain, which can point to complications such as haematoma, haemorrhoids or infection, and worsening uterine pain, which can point to complications such as endometritis.

    Applies to Maternal
    • Women after birth who have perineal pain or pain from uterine cramping. The statements are remarks the guideline group added beside its recommendations on perineal pain relief and on pain from uterine cramping.
    • Facility- or community-based postnatal care
    • Global (WHO guidance)
    • The weeks after birth
    • Gestational age Not reported
    • Postnatal age Not reported
    Follow-up Not applicable: guideline remarks
    Certainty method
    Not assessed
    Limitations
    These are examples WHO gives in remarks, not a full list of postpartum warning signs. The guideline does not set out one list of maternal danger signs. The remarks were read from the English PDF.
    Last checked
    2026-10-15
    Next evidence check due
    Not scheduled
    Sources and citations (2)

    1. Supports WHO recommendations on maternal and newborn care for a positive postnatal experience

      Guideline · World Health Organization · Edition First edition, 2022. The date is the who.int page date, 30 March 2022, which the atlas uses for WHO sources and decisions; the WHO IRIS record 10665/352658 lists an issue date of 2022-03-29 for the same document. The English PDF was read from IRIS (bitstream 73dec697-c033-449c-8323-1cd04a8d8f20). The who.int page lists a corrigendum dated 26 May 2022 beside the web supplement on the evidence base (ISBN 978-92-4-004617-7), not beside the guideline; the corrigendum (mk-who-9789240046177-corrigendum.pdf) changes one source citation on page 93 of that supplement, and the supplement was not read. · Published 2022-03-30 · ISBN: 978-92-4-004598-9

      Locator
      Recommendation 4, Remarks
      How it applies
      WHO guideline PDF (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO); short quotation.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      f4cbef197fdf40d33e1c53987ba6f4e099265fe0d867724c8c2e4fb91051a071
      Reuse basis
      Licensed CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO, as stated in the IRIS record (dc.rights.uri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo). Only short quotations with attribution are used, and neither the PDF nor the pages are committed. The non-commercial and share-alike terms need a licensing decision before any text is adapted.

    2. Supports WHO recommendations on maternal and newborn care for a positive postnatal experience

      Guideline · World Health Organization · Edition First edition, 2022. The date is the who.int page date, 30 March 2022, which the atlas uses for WHO sources and decisions; the WHO IRIS record 10665/352658 lists an issue date of 2022-03-29 for the same document. The English PDF was read from IRIS (bitstream 73dec697-c033-449c-8323-1cd04a8d8f20). The who.int page lists a corrigendum dated 26 May 2022 beside the web supplement on the evidence base (ISBN 978-92-4-004617-7), not beside the guideline; the corrigendum (mk-who-9789240046177-corrigendum.pdf) changes one source citation on page 93 of that supplement, and the supplement was not read. · Published 2022-03-30 · ISBN: 978-92-4-004598-9

      Locator
      Recommendation 6, Remarks
      How it applies
      WHO guideline PDF (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO); short quotation.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      f4cbef197fdf40d33e1c53987ba6f4e099265fe0d867724c8c2e4fb91051a071
      Reuse basis
      Licensed CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO, as stated in the IRIS record (dc.rights.uri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo). Only short quotations with attribution are used, and neither the PDF nor the pages are committed. The non-commercial and share-alike terms need a licensing decision before any text is adapted.

Context Women in the weeks and months after birth, as addressed by health education pages

Recipient
Maternal
Population
Women after birth, as the audience of patient and clinician education pages. The pages describe education and information, not outcomes in a sample of women.
Care setting
Not applicable: education material
Geography
United States (the pages are from US organisations)
Life stage
After birth, up to the first year postpartum
Gestational age
Not reported
Postnatal age
Not reported
Follow-up
Not applicable
Eligibility: 1 inclusion criterion; 1 exclusion criterion
Included
  • Women after birth
Excluded
  • Not stated in the source

  • Description Evidence stage not applicable Certainty not assessed

    The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses runs the POST-BIRTH Warning Signs Education Program, a course with program resources that teaches nurses and clinicians about serious illness and death of mothers in the postpartum period, and gives them ways to teach patients and families to recognise warning signs. The page says the course was updated in December 2023.

    Applies to Maternal
    • Women after birth, as the audience of patient and clinician education pages. The pages describe education and information, not outcomes in a sample of women.
    • Not applicable: education material
    • United States (the pages are from US organisations)
    • After birth, up to the first year postpartum
    • Gestational age Not reported
    • Postnatal age Not reported
    Follow-up Not applicable
    Certainty method
    Not assessed
    Limitations
    This describes a training programme from its own program page, which is cited and not quoted because the organisation asks for permission to reuse its copyrighted material. The page was not tested against any outcome, and the program materials and the course itself were not read.
    Last checked
    2026-10-15
    Next evidence check due
    Not scheduled
    Sources and citations (2)

    1. Supports POST-BIRTH Warning Signs Education Program (AWHONN)

      Webpage · Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) · Edition The program page as shown on 2026-10-15; the page lists an update stamp of 2026-07-20. The handouts, the course and the linked PDF files were not read.

      Locator
      Why Is Postpartum Discharge Training Essential, paragraph 1
      How it applies
      AWHONN program page; cite only.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      bb567bf0e1b96659e80d4bd884ca5a950c57148f2afb12990156fa2633547b2d
      Reuse basis
      The page directs requests to reuse its copyrighted material to AWHONN permissions and sets its own permissions policy for the handouts. No licence for reuse of its text was found, so it is cite_only here: facts are stated in the atlas's own words with a citation and link. The page bytes are not committed; only the hash is kept.

    2. Supports POST-BIRTH Warning Signs Education Program (AWHONN)

      Webpage · Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) · Edition The program page as shown on 2026-10-15; the page lists an update stamp of 2026-07-20. The handouts, the course and the linked PDF files were not read.

      Locator
      Revised POST-BIRTH Warning Signs Education Now Available
      How it applies
      AWHONN program page; cite only.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      bb567bf0e1b96659e80d4bd884ca5a950c57148f2afb12990156fa2633547b2d
      Reuse basis
      The page directs requests to reuse its copyrighted material to AWHONN permissions and sets its own permissions policy for the handouts. No licence for reuse of its text was found, so it is cite_only here: facts are stated in the atlas's own words with a citation and link. The page bytes are not committed; only the hash is kept.

  • Description Evidence stage not applicable Certainty not assessed

    The MedlinePlus Postpartum Care topic, under its Symptoms heading, links to a page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called Signs and Symptoms of Urgent Maternal Warnings Signs. That CDC page returned an access error to a script, so its contents are not recorded here.

    Applies to Maternal
    • Women after birth, as the audience of patient and clinician education pages. The pages describe education and information, not outcomes in a sample of women.
    • Not applicable: education material
    • United States (the pages are from US organisations)
    • After birth, up to the first year postpartum
    • Gestational age Not reported
    • Postnatal age Not reported
    Follow-up Not applicable
    Certainty method
    Not assessed
    Limitations
    This records that a pointer exists on a government health information page. It says nothing about which signs the CDC page lists. The MedlinePlus page was read as shown on 2026-10-15.
    Last checked
    2026-10-15
    Next evidence check due
    Not scheduled
    Sources and citations (1)

    1. Supports Postpartum Care (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · National Library of Medicine (MedlinePlus) · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The page carries no edition date. The summary is credited on the page to the Dept. of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health.

      Locator
      Symptoms section, first link
      How it applies
      MedlinePlus health topic page; short quotation.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      3cf394f87d512987af681ddf5d66a078422d5fe2b74ebc5fef56826562bba7ae
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus health topic summaries are in the public domain (page https://medlineplus.gov/about/using/usingcontent/, fetched earlier as mj-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 31267ce9db016893b80c5665312d92ffc8c34ec86916f84708c353936ba52228; see core:medlineplus-using-content). The page asks users to acknowledge MedlinePlus as the source. The page bytes are not committed; only the hash is kept. Short quotations only. Links on the page to CDC, March of Dimes, ACOG and other pages are pointers; none of those pages was read.

Record details

Record id
maternal:postpartum-warning-signs
Content hash
4492f07f49d2a057fa6fa8ead4db96457cf78a9ca150cd20cee37f70717e0a32