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Bleeding after birth goes on for weeks, changes colour, stops and starts — and nobody tells you what's typical for your day. Enter your birth date and describe what you're seeing. You'll get what's usual at your exact stage, whether anything you've described needs a call, and how soon.
Step 1
How did you give birth?
Step 2
Go by what's on your pad today, not what it was.
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Are you breastfeeding?
Step 6
These change the answer, so please check each one.
Where you are
This bleeding (called lochia) happens after every birth, including C-sections, as the womb heals where the placenta was attached. These are typical ranges — yours may be a little faster or slower.
| Roughly when | Colour | What's typical |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–4 | Bright or dark red | Like a heavy period. Clots are common in the first 2–3 days. |
| Days 4–12 | Pink or brown | Thinner and more watery, with fewer or no clots. |
| Day 12 to about 6 weeks | Yellowish or creamy white | Little or no blood. Traces can last up to 8 weeks. |
It's also common for bleeding to get heavier for a while when you're more active, when you breastfeed, and when you first stand up in the morning.
Based on: Cleveland Clinic — Lochia · NHS Healthier Together — Blood loss after birth · ACOG — Conditions to watch for after childbirth · AWHONN — Post-birth warning signs
You're handed a baby and a packet of enormous pads, and that's roughly the whole briefing. Here's what's actually happening, what it looks like week by week in real life, and where the line sits between normal and worth a phone call.
When the placenta comes away, it leaves a wound inside your uterus roughly the size of a dinner plate. Everything you're losing — blood, mucus and tissue — is that area healing and your uterus shedding the extra lining it built over nine months. The medical name for it is lochia.
This happens after every birth. A C-section doesn't skip it: the placenta still detaches, so you still bleed, though some people bleed a little less because some of it was cleared during surgery.
Days 1 to 4. Dark or bright red and heavy, like a strong period. Soaking a thick maternity pad every two to three hours is within the expected range at this stage. Small clots — grape-sized, up to about the size of a coin — are common in the first two to three days. Cramping while you feed is normal too; that's oxytocin telling your uterus to contract back down, which is exactly what you want it doing.
Days 4 to 12. The colour fades to pink or brown and it gets thinner and more watery. Clots become fewer or stop. Most people are down to changing a pad every few hours.
Day 12 to about six weeks. Yellowish or creamy white, with little or no blood in it. Many people are on a panty liner by now. Traces can carry on to around eight weeks.
This is the single most common reason mothers panic, and usually the most innocent. Bleeding predictably picks up during or after activity like walking or climbing stairs, while you're breastfeeding, and in a gush when you first stand up in the morning — that last one is simply what pooled overnight.
A useful way to read your own body: your flow is a fairly honest report on your day. If it was light yesterday and heavier after an afternoon of visitors, errands and stairs, that's your body asking you to do less, not a sign that something has broken. Sit down with your feet up for the rest of the day and see if it settles.
Bleeding that stops for a few days and then restarts is also common. The usual explanations are overdoing it, or your first period returning — which can arrive from around six weeks, sooner if you aren't breastfeeding. But bright red bleeding that comes back and keeps going deserves a call rather than a wait.
"Heavy" is hard to judge in the middle of it, so use these markers instead:
Heavy bleeding is not only a first-day problem. It can happen up to 12 weeks after birth, which is precisely why it catches people out at home once everyone has stopped checking on them.
Use maternity pads, not tampons or a menstrual cup, until your postnatal check. Tampons raise the risk of infection while everything is still healing, and pads let you see how much you're actually losing, which matters if you need to describe it to someone.
Change pads often and wash your hands before and after, front to back. Lochia should smell like a period — musty or metallic. A foul or fishy smell is a reason to call, because it can signal infection.
Showers are fine straight away. Baths, swimming and hot tubs usually wait until bleeding has stopped and any stitches or incision have healed, generally around six weeks, because the cervix hasn't fully closed before then.
By around six weeks, lochia should be finished or nearly so. If bleeding returns after a clear break of a week or more, that's often a period, particularly if you aren't breastfeeding exclusively. Periods tend to arrive, build, and stop within about a week; lochia fades gradually and doesn't come back heavier than it started.
And the thing worth knowing regardless: you can ovulate before your first period, so a returning cycle isn't the first warning you'll get about fertility.
Beyond the heavy-bleeding markers above, contact your midwife or doctor if you have a temperature of 38°C (100.4°F) or more, a foul-smelling discharge, belly or pelvic pain that's getting worse, or if you're still bleeding after about eight weeks. Any of those is a same-day call, not a next-appointment mention.
One more thing, and it matters more than any threshold on this page: if something feels wrong to you, that is reason enough to ring. You are the only person who knows what your normal has been for the last week.
Sources: Cleveland Clinic — Lochia · NHS Healthier Together — Blood loss after birth · ACOG · AWHONN — Post-birth warning signs
Usually up to about six weeks, and traces can carry on to around eight. It starts red, turns pink or brown after a few days, then yellowish white. It happens after a C-section too.
It's common for bleeding to pick up again after a busier day, and a period can also return from several weeks after birth, sooner if you're not breastfeeding. But bright red bleeding that comes back and keeps going, or gets heavy, should be checked by your midwife or doctor.
Clots are common in the first two to three days. After that they should become fewer and smaller. Clots the size of an egg or bigger, or large clots later on, are a reason to call your provider.
Not yet. Use pads until your postnatal check, because tampons raise the risk of infection while you're healing, and pads let you see how much you're losing.
Soaking a thick pad in an hour or less, blood that keeps flowing, or clots the size of an egg or bigger need a call straight away. Feeling faint, dizzy or having a racing heart while bleeding is an emergency. This can happen up to 12 weeks after birth.