What to expect in the 1st week postpartum
One of the many benefits of midwifery care is the excellent quality postpartum care you will receive! Midwives offer three home visits in the first week of life. These important visits take place at home to promote you relaxing in your own space as you get to know your baby. These visits are designed to assess wellness of both you and your baby.
After the first week, your midwife will have you schedule visits at the clinic for a two-week check-up, a four-week check-up and a final six-week visit. The pattern of visits may change depending on your clinical situation – this is up to you and your midwife.
These visits include:
A full assessment of your baby’s wellness, including vital signs, assessing for heart murmurs, and doing newborn blood tests.
An assessment of your baby’s weight gain and growth.
A full assessment of your wellness, including vital signs, assessing bleeding, assessing your perineum or c-section incision, and assessing your breasts/nipples in relation to lactation and breastfeeding.
An assessment of infant feeding including extensive breastfeeding support.
Arranging consultations in the community including visits to a lactation consultant, visits to have your baby’s jaundice level checked, or visits to another care provider.
Midwives work hard to deliver excellent quality care for you 24/7. This includes driving to your home, and all around our city, in good and bad weather, on weekdays and weekends, and over holidays. For this reason, we must work collaboratively with you in order to be able to provide these home visits.
We expect the following at your visits:
You must be home when your midwife is expected to come over for a home visit. Please do not plan to go out so that your midwife does not arrive to an empty home. It may not be possible for your midwife to come back for a home visit later that day.
You must have voicemail set up or have some alternative way for your midwife to reach you. We will call you to let you know when we plan on coming, and we expect to be able to reach you. Ensure that your voicemail is set up, and that it is not “too full” to leave a message. Or, consider having your midwife email you before coming if this works better for you.
You must be ready to receive your midwife. Consider putting dogs in another room so the midwife is able to assess you and your baby without interruption. Consider going into a private room, or delay having visitors come over, until your midwife visit is over.
Please understand that in order to have a well-rested team, some midwives will be off on weekends. This means that another midwife or a qualified senior student may need to see you at home for some of your visits.
Please understand that labour and births will take priority over home visits. This means that your home visit may be rescheduled to later in the day, or earlier, depending on what is going on with other clients. We ask for your patience and your cooperation in flexibility so that we can properly provide care to all of our valued clients. A midwife will see you at home, it may just mean the timing of the visit could change depending on when babies decide to arrive.
We thank you for your cooperation and we look forward to providing you with great care at home.