1.5.3  Follow-up after immediate postnatal care

During the first postnatal visit, you should also remember to:

  • Counsel the mother and her husband/partner about family planning, immunization, and breast feeding, as you will learn later in this Module.
  • Make an appointment for her to come to your Health Post or visit her at home after three days, six days and six weeks (Figure 1.2) if everything is progressing normally.
  • Make an additional appointment to visit her at home after two days if there are any complications which have not resulted in referral, or if the baby was pre-term, low birth weight or suffers from low body temperature.

Low birth weight and pre-term babies are the subject of Study Session 8.

A health worker is talking to a mother. A baby lays asleep on the mothers lap.
Figure 1.2  A postnatal checkup is a good time to counsel mothers about immunization and family planning. (Photo: UNICEF Ethiopia/Indrias Getachew)

1.5.2  Evaluating the newborn baby

1.6  Community mobilisation for postnatal care