The First Period

The bleeding right after birth gets explained at least once before anyone goes home. The period that turns up afterwards gets explained to nobody.

When it comes back

Without nursing, usually somewhere between six and twelve weeks.

With exclusive nursing the range gets wide, because the hormones involved in making milk suppress ovulation. Some nursing parents see nothing for six months, some for a year or more, and some get a period at ten weeks while feeding around the clock, which is normal and is not a sign that anything has gone wrong with supply.

If you do not wish to fall pregnant, do not rely on nursing alone as birth control: the period comes back after ovulation has already happened. You do not get a warning.

What the first few are like

Heavier than before is common, and so is longer, and so is arriving at intervals that make no sense. Clots the size of a grape are ordinary. It also goes the other way, where the first one is barely there and the second one is the one that catches you out. Things usually settle into a pattern within three or four cycles. Cramping is worse than it used to be for some people and better than it ever was for others, and there is no way to know which one you get 🙂

When to call someone

If you are soaking through a pad an hour for two hours or more, passing clots bigger than a plum, bleeding that comes with a fever or a smell, bleeding that stops for a few weeks and then restarts heavily, or having pain that acetaminophen and ibuprofen do not touch.

After a caesarean, bleeding that starts and stops for months is worth raising, since a small pocket in the scar can collect blood and release it later.

For anyone who tracks, the first postpartum cycles will not match what the app expects, and the app will keep predicting anyway, wrongly, for months.