After the birth: recovery, feeding, and your own health
What the first six weeks actually involve, where feeding help comes from, how to tell low days from something more, and what the postnatal check is for.
What this course is for
Five short lessons for the weeks after a birth, when almost all the attention goes to the baby. It covers what your body is doing, feeding and the help that exists for it, your mind and the difference between hard days and something that needs treatment, the postnatal check, and the signs that need help the same day. It cannot assess your own recovery. Written by AskHer's editorial team from published guidance, and not yet signed off by a clinician registered in India — which is why no clinical reviewer is named. This is general education, not advice about your own situation, and it does not replace seeing a clinician.
- Lessons
- 5 lessons
- Length
- about 0.8 hours
- Formats
- Text
- Level
- No prior knowledge assumed
Languages, before you enrol
A language is listed as available only when a second person who speaks it has reviewed the content. Machine translation on its own never counts as availability here.
- Reviewed and available now
- English
What you will be able to do
- Describe what the first six weeks involve physically, and what is not ordinary
- Know what feeding support exists and how to ask for it before you are desperate
- Tell apart the low days almost everyone has from something that needs treatment
- Use the postnatal check for your own health rather than only the baby's
- Recognise the signs that need same-day help
No prerequisites. This course assumes nothing and starts from the beginning.
Course contents
5 lessons · about 0.8 hours
- 1 Free to read
The first six weeks: what your body is doing
Bleeding, stitches, pain, bladder and bowels — what is expected, and what is not.
11 min · Text
- 2 Free to read
Feeding: what help exists, and what nobody tells you
Why it is often hard at first, where practical help comes from, and how to ask before you are desperate.
11 min · Text
- 3 Free to read
Your mind after birth, and telling low days from something more
The difference between the short-lived low mood most people get and a condition that needs treatment.
11 min · Text
- 4 Free to read
The postnatal check, and using it for yourself
It is your appointment as well as the baby's, and there is a short list worth raising at it.
9 min · Text
- 5 Free to read
When to get help quickly
The short postnatal list: the things that need somebody today rather than at the next visit.
8 min · Text
On the same learning path
Other courses on Pregnancy and after. This is the path they belong to, not a recommendation based on anything you have read — AskHer does not build a profile of your reading.
Pregnancy trimester by trimester: what happens, what is checked, and what to ask
What each stage involves, what the routine checks are for, the warning signs at every stage, and what to take to each visit.
Free · 5 lessons