Reading path: the first weeks after birth

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 is a reading order, not medical advice and not a care plan.

Reading path
In this atlas

Overview

Technical summary

An editorial sequence of 10 steps over pages on recovery after birth and the first checks of the baby. Each step restates in one line what the linked page covers; the linked pages carry the sources and populations. It links only to records that exist and branches nowhere. It continues from the existing reading path for expectant parents.

Who this is for

New parents in the first weeks after a birth, and the families and clinicians who want to read about it in order.

Reading order

Postnatal care for the mother
Recovery in the weeks after birth: the checks recommended and the schedule of contacts. Rest matters, and bleeding can come and go for up to six weeks.
Warning signs after birth
Symptoms that need urgent care after birth, and why this atlas does not list them: where to find the lists and what a guideline says about worsening pain.
Postpartum haemorrhage
Heavy bleeding after the baby is born, one of the leading causes of death for mothers worldwide.
High blood pressure after birth (mother)
High blood pressure after birth, and a UK trial of home monitoring with doctor-guided medicine changes.
Postpartum depression (mother)
Low mood after birth, from the baby blues to postpartum depression, and what treatment exists.
Breastfeeding
Feeding with milk from the breast, the support that is available and what the studies of support found.
Care of the newborn in the first days
The routine care of a baby after birth and in the first days, with a link to each part.
Newborn screening
The tests every newborn is offered before going home.
Newborn jaundice (hyperbilirubinaemia)
Yellow skin in a newborn, which is common in the first week and can sometimes signal a problem.
Safe infant sleep
How and where a baby sleeps, and the safe sleep advice.

Record details

Record id: maternal:reading-path-after-birth
Content hash: 24a9cfea7c22c64b75e59c1e06c8cea5758c404b0daee4b634c153ba08d3e428