Postnatal Bleeding (Lochia)
Postnatal Bleeding can be scary for any woman after pregnancy. Learn about your body’s natural healing process after pregnancy. After pregnancy, you’ll have a flow of blood. It seems like a heavy period, but it’s not. Instead, it’s actually one way that your body recovers from pregnancy.
What is the Bleeding?
When you were pregnant, your uterus was lined with blood and tissue. That lining is called “lochia.” Now that you’ve had your baby, your body will shed the lochia, much like you shed blood in your menstrual cycle.
What if I Had a C-Section?
No matter how your baby was delivered, the lochia will shed. So if you had a vaginal delivery or a C-section, you will experience some bleeding.
What Should I Expect?
Postnatal bleeding lasts a different amount of time for each woman in each pregnancy. What you can expect is that the colour of the lochia flow changes over time. It’s red for the first three to four days, then it turns into a pink-brown flow. The amount of lochia flow usually trails off with time, getting lighter around three weeks after delivery.
If you pass large clots, tell your doctor, as this may be a sign of a possible issue. Also, keep the sanitary pad containing the clot because your doctor may want to examine it.