⚠️ Warning signs
When to get in touch with your maternity care.
During pregnancy
Call your hospital or midwife straight away
Any of these mean contact your maternity care now — do not wait for your next appointment.
- ● Any decrease or change in your baby's movements (from 28 weeks) — do not wait, re-count, or try to wake baby first
- ● Heavy vaginal bleeding, or bleeding with pain
- ● A gush or trickle of fluid (your waters may have broken)
- ● Severe or persistent headache, especially with vision changes (spots, blurring)
- ● Sudden swelling of your face, hands or feet
- ● Severe pain in your abdomen or shoulder tip
- ● A high temperature or fever
- ● Persistent vomiting and unable to keep fluids down
- ● Painful, regular contractions before 37 weeks
- ● Feeling faint, a racing heart, or trouble breathing
Contact your midwife or GP for advice
Not emergencies, but worth a call the same or next day.
- ● Mild spotting without pain
- ● Mild, irregular cramping
- ● Burning or stinging when you wee
- ● Persistent itching, especially on your palms and soles
- ● Vomiting a few times a day but still keeping some fluids down
After birth
Mum — get help straight away
Call your midwife, hospital or 000. Postpartum problems can move fast — don't wait it out.
- ● Heavy bleeding — soaking a pad an hour, or passing large clots
- ● A red, hot, painful area on your breast with flu-like aches or fever (mastitis)
- ● Fever, chills, or a wound/stitches that are increasingly painful, red or smelly
- ● Severe headache, vision changes or sudden swelling (pre-eclampsia can start after birth)
- ● Pain, redness or swelling in your calf, or chest pain and breathlessness (possible clot)
- ● Feeling unable to cope, or any thoughts of harming yourself or your baby — this is an emergency
Baby — get help straight away
Trust your instincts and contact your midwife, child-health nurse, GP or hospital now.
- ● Jaundice (yellow skin or eyes) in the first 24 hours, or deepening/spreading jaundice
- ● Not feeding, or far fewer wet nappies than usual
- ● A fever, or feeling unusually cold; floppy, or very hard to wake
- ● Fast, laboured or grunting breathing, or pauses in breathing
- ● Persistent vomiting (especially green), or a swollen, tense tummy
Worth a call the same or next day
Not emergencies, but don't sit on them.
- ● Feeling low, tearful, anxious or disconnected beyond the first 2 weeks — call PANDA 1300 726 306
- ● Painful or cracked nipples, or feeding that isn't getting easier
- ● Firm, engorged breasts that a feed doesn't relieve
- ● Baby unsettled, hard to feed, or not back to birth weight by 2 weeks
About baby's movements
From around 28 weeks you'll get to know your baby's usual pattern of movements. There's no magic number of kicks to count — what matters is a change from what's normal for your baby. If movements slow, weaken or stop, call your hospital straight away. Don't wait until tomorrow, don't try to make baby move first, and don't be reassured by a home doppler.
Keep your hospital and midwife numbers somewhere you can find them fast.