Member

Login to your account, make a payment, see benefits and more.

Members

Manage Your Plan

Helpful Tools

Wellcare By Fidelis Care

Members
Providers

Login to your account, download forms, view auth grids and more.

Providers

Provider Resources

About Our Plans

Helpful Tools

Providers
Shop For a Plan

See plan benefits, coverage areas, get a quote and more.

Shop for a Plan

Our Plans

Helpful Tools

Wellcare By Fidelis Care

Shop for a Plan
AAA
HomeMemberHelpful ToolsHealth ResourcesPostpartum Health Literacy

Postpartum (After Delivery) Health Literacy

Learn about essential postpartum health practices, recovery tips, and key information for new mothers. Improve your understanding of physical, emotional, and mental well-being after childbirth to support a healthy recovery journey.

Take steps for your health:



Know the Warning Signs

Postpartum Warning Signs

If you experience any of the following, call your provider immediately for further instruction:

  • Bleeding heavy enough to soak a pad in an hour or less
  • Passing any large clots (larger than a golf ball)
  • Severe or unusual headache
  • Visual changes including blurred vision or double vision
  • Pain or redness in your breasts, or if your milk hasn’t come in by day 5 after delivery
  • Redness, drainage, swelling or foul odors from an incision site
  • Flu-like symptoms, or a fever 100.4° or greater
  • Problems urinating including burning or inability to urinate
  • Pain, warmth, swelling, or tenderness in your legs, especially in the calf
  • Mood changes that make you feel like you aren’t yourself, feeling hopeless or depressed, trouble getting out of bed, or trouble bonding with your baby
  • Seizures

Maternal-Health



Get Your Postpartum Visit

If you don’t already have your postpartum appointment, make sure you schedule one today!

It is essential that you see your OB Provider for a postpartum appointment 7-84 days after delivery. This is your chance to discuss any concerns or questions you have. Your provider will check your physical and emotional health during this appointment.

Your doctor may do various screenings:

  • Check your vital signs including weight and blood pressure
  • Check your breasts and abdomen
  • Give you a pelvic exam if you are due, or if you had a tear or episiotomy
  • Discuss your mood, emotional well-being, and how you are adjusting
  • Discuss family planning, contraception, and when you can resume sexual activity
  • Review ongoing preventative health maintenance

Benefits for Postpartum Visit

Your postpartum visit has no co-pay and is an included benefit in all of our Fidelis Plans.

BabyCare-Program

 


Know What to Expect of Your Mind & Body After Delivery

Your Feelings as a New Parent

After delivery, many parents get a mild form of depression called “baby blues.” You may be moody, irritable, and anxious. These feelings are usually temporary and resolve within 2 weeks. If you are feeling down one day and better the next, this is totally normal. You may feel like you should be happy after having a baby. Give yourself a break! This is a challenging time. There is nothing wrong with feeling emotional. Your body and your life are going through a lot of changes.

Signs of Postpartum Depression

Sometimes, feelings of sadness are severe and don’t go away on their own. If you feel sad or worried more often than not, you might have postpartum depression. Below are some common signs of postpartum depression:

  • Crying a lot.
  • Withdrawal from family and friends.
  • Loss of interest or pleasure in activities you used to enjoy.
  • Weight loss.
  • Feelings of worthlessness or guilt.
  • Feeling like you are having trouble bonding with your baby.
  • Mood changes that make you feel like you aren’t yourself (such as sadness, hopelessness)
  • Thoughts of hurting yourself or your baby. If you have these thoughts, call for help right away
  • Thoughts of death or suicide. If you have these thoughts, call for help right away.

If you answer yes to either of the following questions, you could have depression:

  • During the past two weeks, have you often been bothered by feeling down, depressed, or hopeless?
  • During the past two weeks, have you often had little interest or pleasure in doing things?

If you are having these feelings, reach out for help from your doctor, a friend, or your partner. There is support available to you.

How to Get Help

Postpartum depression can be treated with great results. There is help.

  • If you are thinking of harming yourself or others, call 911 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273- TALK (8255) for help right away.
  • Talk to your doctor about possible medications you can take to help lift the feelings.
  • Many people find talking to a counselor can help. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to a counselor, talk to a friend, a family member, or another parent you trust.

 

Your Body After Delivery

Discomfort From Not Breastfeeding
If you’re not breastfeeding, your breasts may be sore and swollen until the milk stops coming in. This can take about a week or so. To ease some of the discomfort, wear a firm, supportive bra for 24 hours and use cold packs until your milk stops.
How To Take Care of Sore Breasts When Breastfeeding
Here are some symptoms you may experience when you begin to breastfeed and suggestions for how to handle them. Keep in mind these symptoms are usually temporary.

Symptom

How can I prevent this?

How can I treat this?

Sore, dry, or cracked nipples

  • Make sure your baby latches on and gets enough breast tissue in their mouth. This will create a tight seal.
  • Let your baby suck for as long as the sucking is strong. If your baby starts to doze or just nibble, stop the feed. Put your finger in your baby’s mouth alongside your nipple to get your baby to let go. Don’t just pull your baby off.
  • Rinse your nipples with water after nursing. Don’t use soap. Leave your bra off or open so your nipples can air-dry for a short time.
  • Apply cream with lanolin in it to the nipple after nursing. Only use creams or medicines your doctor tells you to use. Wipe this off before the next feeding.
  • Apply breast milk to the nipple, it has natural healing abilities too!

Full, sore breasts

  • Nurse or pump every 2 to 4 hours.
  • Make sure your baby nurses on each breast each time they feed.
  • Take a hot shower or put on a heating pad before feeding to help you release your milk.
  • Wear a supportive bra. Make sure it’s not too tight.
  • Take mild pain medicine like acetaminophen (TYLENOL).
  • Place cold packs or a package of frozen peas on your breasts between feedings.

If You’re Breastfeeding, Be Aware of Mastitis Symptoms

If you have a sore, red, painful breast with chills, fever, and flu-like symptoms, you may have an infection called mastitis. Mastitis is caused by blocked milk ducts or when bacteria enters the breast. Mastitis needs to be treated with antibiotics. Call your doctor if you think you may have  mastitis.

Healing From a Cesarean Section

If you delivered through cesarean section (C-section), you may have some soreness, numbness, or itching around your incision. This is normal and should improve over time. Use the pain relievers prescribed by your doctor. Remember to hold your belly when you sneeze or cough and use pillows for extra support while feeding your baby.

If your incision looks very red, is draining, or is getting more painful, there may be an infection. Call your doctor.

Healing From a Vaginal Delivery

It’s normal to have small tears after having a baby. Your doctor might use special stitches that dissolve on their own to help you heal. They will make sure you are as comfortable as possible during this.

To care for your body after a vaginal delivery:

Cleaning

  • Spray the area with warm water after using the toilet
  • Gently wipe from front to back after using the toilet
  • Change sanitary pads every 2 to 4 hours
  • Avoid soap or wipes unless instructed by your healthcare provider

Reducing swelling

  • Use chilled witch hazel pads
  • Apply ice or a cold pack to the area for 10 to 20 minutes at a time, several times a day

Pain medication

  • Take pain medication as prescribed by your doctor
  • Avoid pain relief medication with codeine

Soothing

  • Use an inflatable ring when sitting
  • Sit in a warm bath (sitz bath) 3 times a day and after bowel movements
  • Soak the perineal area in warm water a few times a day
Postdelivery Symptoms and Treatments

Symptom

What to Expect and What you Can Do

When to call the doctor

Feeling tired

  • Try to nap, eat, and shower when your baby is napping.
  • Eat a healthy diet and drink plenty of fluids.
  • Keep taking your prenatal vitamins.
  • Ask family and friends for help.
  • You are so tired that you can’t take care of yourself or your baby.
  • You have a temperature higher than 100.4° F.

Cramps

  • This is expected for 7 days or longer. It may get more intense while nursing.
  • You can take a mild pain reliever like ibuprofen or naproxen.
  • Severe cramping that is not resolved with pain medication.

Sore bottom and painful piles (hemorrhoids)

  • Use a cold pack for the first 48 hours.
  • Take a sitz bath (soaking your bottom in a small plastic tub with warm water).
  • Use cotton balls or pads soaked in witch hazel.*
  • Use a spray bottle to wash your bottom several times a day.
  • Use over-the-counter ointments and creams like hydrocortisone.*
  • You are having severe pain.
  • You have a lot of trouble with urination or bowel movements.

Bleeding and discharge from your vagina

  • This is normal for the first few weeks after delivery.
  • You pass blood clots larger than a golf ball.
  • You have severe vaginal bleeding that gets heavier.

Swelling, pain, and/or redness in your legs or calves

  • It is normal to have some swelling.
  • You can lie on your left side when resting or sleeping.
  • Put your feet up.
  • Try to stay cool and wear loose clothes.
  • Drink plenty of water.
  • If you have more swelling in one leg than the other, this could be a blood clot.

* You may be able to get these items at no cost with a prescription from your doctor.



Support in Caring for Your New Baby

Infant Warning Signs

Call your baby’s pediatrician immediately for further instruction if you notice any of the following symptoms:

  • A fever of 100.4° or greater, or less than 97.6° *Note: Rectal temperature readings are the most accurate, however, any fever should be reported to your doctor.
  • Less than 3 wet diapers a day
  • Persistent poor feeding or forceful vomiting
  • Redness or foul-smelling discharge from umbilical cord
  • Yellowing of skin or eyes
  • Persistent crying or irritability
  • Grey/blue coloring around mouth and lips when feeding or crying
  • Any time you are concerned!

Crying is a natural reaction for babies. They typically have 1 to 2 hours of unexplained crying scattered throughout each day for the first 3 months of life. Make sure baby’s basic needs are met when they are crying. If they have been changed and fed and don’t have a fever, try to soothe or comfort them.

Ways To Comfort a Crying Baby

  • Hold your baby. You can’t spoil them by holding them too much, especially in the first few months of life.
  • Quietly talk or sing to your baby. Play some music or turn on a sound machine.
  • Gently rock or walk around with your baby.
  • Sucking helps calm babies so try a pacifier. For breastfed babies, a pacifier is fine to use once baby is successfully feeding. Many studies indicate that “Nipple confusion” is a myth.
  • Wrap your baby snugly in a blanket with their arms inside. This is called swaddling.

    •  

    BabyCare-Program

     

    Never Shake a Crying Baby

    If you or your baby's caregivers are frustrated, calmly put baby down in a safe place such as a crib. Call family and friends and say you need help. Go for a walk, read a magazine or watch TV until you feel ready. Never shake a baby. Their neck muscles are too weak to support their head. Shaking can cause serious injury and death. Always leave your infant with a trusted caregiver when away. If you feel overwhelmed more often than not, talk to your healthcare provider or care manager.

    It will take time for you to get to know your baby, and what they need and when. But if you feel overwhelmed more often than not, you can ask for help. Talk to your healthcare provider or call your care manager. They can talk you through some ideas that might help. And guide you to resources to get you feeling better.

    How Can You Make Sure Your Baby Is Safe When Sleeping?

    1. Make sure your baby's sleep area is in the same room, next to where you sleep.
    2. Dress your baby in sleep clothing, such as a wearable blanket.  Do not use a loose blanket, and do not overbundle your baby.
    3. Always place your baby on their back to sleep - for naps and at night.
    4. Use a firm and flat sleep surface, such as a mattress in a safety-approved crib, covered by a fitted sheet.
    • Do not put your baby to sleep in an adult bed, on a couch, or on a chair alone, with you, or with anyone else.
    • Do not smoke or let anyone else smoke around your baby
    • Do not put pillows, blankets, sheepskins, or crib bumpers anywhere in your baby's sleep area
    • Keep soft objects, toys, and loose bedding out of your baby's sleep area.  Make sure nothing covers their head.

    Additional Resources