Postpartum Recovery Timeline: What to Expect After Giving Birth

While everyone's post-delivery experience is unique, the postpartum recovery timeline is usually fairly predictable. For example, it's always advised to avoid housework, heavy lifting, and other strenuous physical activity immediately after giving birth and during those first days and weeks postpartum. But when and how you resume other activities will depend on your health care provider's advice and how you're feeling.

No matter how your baby is born, you can count on being sore and tired after birth, so plan to focus your energy on taking care of yourself and your newborn. If you're looking for some more guidance, here is our ultimate postpartum timeline that details everything from when you can safely drive to when you can resume exercise after childbirth.

Immediately After Delivery

If you're feeling up for it, you can likely do the following activities right after giving birth:

• Hold your baby: As long as you and your baby are up for it, you will likely be able to hold your baby just after giving birth.
• Feed your baby: If breastfeeding is part of your plan, you'll be able to start practicing right away. The first few hours after giving birth are crucial to establishing a breastfeeding bond. You can also give your baby a bottle if you choose not to breastfeed.
• Walk: If you didn't have an epidural, you'll likely be able to walk right after delivery. If you had an epidural, it generally takes an hour or so to feel your legs again, says Martine Tesone, CNM, DNP, certified nurse-midwife in Erie, Colorado. A C-section will require you to stay in bed longer, but walking can help C-section recovery by improving circulation and bowel function.
  

Hours After Delivery

While you'll want to focus on resting and bonding with your newborn, after a few hours, you'll be able to start doing some additional self-care activities. Here are a few things you can do:

• Take a shower: As long as you aren't experiencing dizziness or lightheadedness and you feel OK standing independently, you should be cleared to shower a few hours after a vaginal delivery, says Nandini Raghuraman, MD, an OB-GYN and chief of the Division of Clinical Research at Washington University School of Medicine. If you had a C-section, you can typically shower within a day.
• Use the bathroom: Your first time using the toilet after delivery is no small feat. You may feel some discomfort, and you may need to be accompanied by a nurse or patient tech to help keep you steady on your feet.
• Drink alcohol: After you and your baby have been checked by a health care provider and you have tried breastfeeding for the first time, it's generally safe to celebrate with a sip of champagne—with hospital staff approval, of course. If you're taking narcotics for pain relief, however, you need to continue to avoid alcohol, says Heather Bartos, MD, an OB-GYN, medical director at Be, and founder of Menopause Rocks. That said, if your baby is consuming your breastmilk via nursing or pumping, it's important to keep safety considerations in mind, because alcohol can pass into breastmilk.

1 Day After Delivery

One day after delivery, you still may not feel quite like yourself, but you will likely be up for doing a couple more activities.

• Take a bath: As long as you have your health care provider's approval, you may be just lucky enough to be able to take a soothing bath about a day after vaginal delivery. If you had a C-section, you'll have to wait a little longer. (But don't worry, you can still safely shower after a C-section.)
• Go home: People who had an uncomplicated vaginal delivery can usually leave the hospital 24–48 hours after giving birth. A C-section delivery will keep you in the hospital for a few more days.

1 Week After Delivery

You should be feeling much better physically a week after giving birth, but you'll still have a lot of healing to do. Here are a few things you can start doing again:

• Drive a car: Robert Atlas, MD, an OB-GYN at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, recommends waiting a week to get behind the wheel. "You use your abs to move your foot from the gas to the brake," he explains. If you've had a C-section, expect to wait two to three weeks before driving again.
• Care for other children: If you have other little ones at home, you may be feeling up to taking on some more child care duties.

2 Weeks After Delivery

After just a couple of weeks, you'll be feeling much better, but you may still need some help. As a reminder, it's OK to accept help when offered and ask for assistance when you need it.

• Do light exercise: If your body is feeling ready for it, you can resume a light workout routine, like regular walks and stretching, a couple of weeks after delivery. It's still best to avoid intense or strenuous workouts at this point in your postpartum recovery timeline.
• Resume some household chores: You can also carry on with day-to-day household chores at the two-week mark, assuming you're feeling good enough. "Always listen to your body," notes Nandini Raghuraman, MD, MSCI, an OB-GYN at The Women & Infants Center, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "If there is any discomfort, immediately stop and rest." If you had a C-section, hold off on any household tasks until you get the all-clear from your health care provider.
  

6 Weeks After Delivery

Adjusting to being a parent will take a lot of time, but by six weeks after delivery, you should be through the initial physical recovery. While it will still take some time to feel like yourself again, you'll likely you'll get the go-ahead from your health care provider to resume most of your pre-pregnancy activities, including:

• Sex: Many people are cleared for sexual activity at the time of their 6-week check-up, but how soon you return to sexual activity after delivery is about more than just physical healing. You and your partner may need more time to feel ready, or you may feel good to go—both are OK.
• Resume birth control: Even after just giving birth, you could already be fertile again. If you want to avoid another pregnancy soon after birth, talk to your health care provider about the birth control options that are best for you.
• Go to the gym: Your body will need at least six weeks to recover, whether you had a vaginal or a C-section birth, before returning to strenuous exercise. While you can likely start hitting the gym again with approval from your health care provider, you may still need to take it slow at this point.