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Postpartum fever within six weeks of delivery can indicate benign or serious health conditions, including infections, blood clotting disorders, collapsed lungs, and more. Women should seek medical attention for any fever, even if it is low-grade. C-section births have a higher risk of complications.
Postpartum fever occurs anytime in the first six weeks after delivery and can indicate benign or extremely serious health conditions. Most often occurring in the first two weeks after a baby is born, the fever doesn’t have to be very high to suggest serious problems, and its presence is always a reason to seek medical attention. While it’s possible that a fever means very little medically, it can be indicative of infections that will get worse or conditions like deep vein thrombosis, which causes blood in the legs to clot and pose a dangerous risk of pulmonary embolism.
There are several main causes of postpartum fever. These include infection, which could affect the uterus, bladder, surgical wounds or breasts. During labor, bacterial contamination can affect the uterus, bladder or surgical wounds and create infections. Breast infection is usually mastitis or a blockage in one or more milk ducts. This frequently occurs a few days after breastfeeding begins, although it can also occur after the postpartum period.
Blood clotting disorders can also cause fever, and deep vein thrombosis is more common, in which clots form in the deep veins of the legs. A rare, related disease that causes fever is septic pelvic venous thrombophlebitis, in which blood clots form in the pelvic blood vessels. It is usually accompanied by extreme pelvic pain and shortness of breath and requires treatment with blood thinners and antibiotics.
Other potential causes of postpartum fever are conditions such as a collapsed lung, called atelectasis. This is treated with exercises to restore lung function. The fever could be secondary to the postpartum period, instead of being a direct result. It’s not uncommon to get a cold or the flu during the first few weeks after pregnancy, although women should seek medical help to rule out infection and get advice on caring for a newborn while they’re sick.
Typically, women who undergo a natural, non-surgical birth do not have a very high risk of fever. About 1% of women who give birth vaginally develop postpartum fever, although this figure is somewhat questionable, especially in relation to the development of mastitis. There appears to be a much higher rate of complications after birth by C-section or C-section. Up to 30% of women can develop infections or conditions that cause fever.
Even when the risk is low, any evidence of a fever is a warning sign and a hint of potentially serious health problems. During their release from the hospital, women should be given instructions on when to contact their doctors. If they’ve missed these instructions, or can’t remember them, the basic guideline is this: Postpartum fever, even low-grade fever, needs immediate medical attention. At the very least, women should call their doctors to determine what medical treatment they should seek.
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