The Postpartum Recovery Guide

Everyone watches your belly grow for nine months. Then the baby arrives and every eye in the room moves to them — while your body is left to do the hardest physical work of its life, mostly unwatched and largely unexplained.

This is the recovery manual for that part. Not how you'll feel about becoming a mum. This one is about function: your perineum, your wound, your bleeding, your pelvic floor, your hormones, and the difference between "normal and miserable" and "call someone now."

INSIDE

• The first 72 hours — afterpains, your first bleed (lochia), the dreaded first wee, stitches and catheters, what the staff are quietly checking, and the golden rule of resting and letting people help.
• Vaginal birth recovery — caring for tears and stitches, the peri bottle that becomes your best friend, ice and sitz baths, haemorrhoids, gentle early pelvic-floor activation, and the signs stitches need checking.
• Caesarean recovery — treating it like the major surgery it is: wound care, the "nothing heavier than your baby" rule, getting out of bed without crying, when you can drive, and the infection signs to watch.
• Bleeding, hormones and the changing body — the four-to-six-week bleeding timeline, drenching night sweats, milk coming in and engorgement, postpartum hair shedding, and an honest word on the "bounce-back" myth.
• Your mind — the difference between the baby blues and perinatal depression or anxiety, and exactly who to ring.

The bits you were too polite to ask about, answered plainly.

Instant PDF. Yours to keep.

General information only, current for 2026 — not medical advice. If something feels wrong, call your midwife, GP or the free national lines listed inside.