After Delivery: When to Call the Health Care Provider

Health problems may happen for you or your baby after delivery. Look for signs in your baby and in yourself. Call 911 or contact a health care provider to get the help you need. 

Call 911

Call 911 if your baby has any of these signs:

• Trouble breathing

• Loss of consciousness or not waking up

• Blue lips, face, tongue, or mouth

• Skin that is pale, grayish, or bluish

• Seizure

• Not moving or very weak

• Vomiting bile (green color)

Watch your baby for these signs

Call your baby’s health care provider if your baby has any of these:

• A rectal or forehead temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher, or as advised by the provider

• Low temperature less than 96.8° F (36.0° C) that does not go up with warming, or as advised by the provider

• Fewer than six wet diapers a day

• Skin or whites of the eyes that look yellow

• Soft spot on top of head looks swollen

• Crying longer than 2 hours without stopping

• Crying that seems caused by pain

• Frequent, thin, watery stool (diarrhea)

• Stool that is hard and dry

• Change in stool, such as a sudden increase or decrease in frequency

• Is not eating normally

• Vomiting or spitting up a lot

• Blood in the stool or vomit

• A rash

• Fluid coming from an ear

• Redness, swelling, or fluid (pus) at the umbilical cord

• A circumcision that isn't healing or that bleeds

Trust your instincts. Newborns need a lot of care. Call 911 or your contact your baby's health care provider if you are worried.

Watch your own health for these signs

Call your own health care provider if you have any of these:

• Seizures ( Call 911)

• Burning feeling or pain in your breasts

• Red streaks or hard lumpy areas in your breasts

• Problems with breastfeeding

• A fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher, or as advised by your healthcare provider

• Extreme tiredness or body aches, as if you have the flu

• Pain, fluid, or bleeding from a cesarean incision

• Feelings of being very sad or anxious

• Feeling that you don’t want to be with your baby

• Belly (abdominal) pain that isn’t eased with medicine

• Fluid from your vagina that has a bad smell

• Vaginal bleeding that soaks more than one pad an hour, passing large blood clots, or feeling faint

• Severe headache

• Swelling in your face or limbs