What subjects will be included in the postpartum recovery examination?

Routine examinations resume 42 days after delivery. Most general hospitals in China give priority to obstetrics departments. Specialist hospitals with specialized postpartum rehabilitation departments can offer postpartum rehabilitation departments. Those with special needs can also adjust the departments according to their own conditions.

Really, at least three new mothers around me have fallen into the trap of being admitted to the wrong department during their first re-examination. They had just given birth and all they could think about was eating, drinking and defecation of their babies, so they failed the gynecology department during their re-examination. They waited in line for two hours to arrive at the door of the clinic, and were reminded by the nurse to go to the obstetrics department. The entire morning was wasted. Why choose obstetrics first? In fact, the logic is very simple. Your full-cycle files from pregnancy to delivery are stored in the obstetrics department. Whether it is tearing during normal delivery, recovery from side incision wounds, scar healing from cesarean section, or follow-up for problems such as gestational diabetes and hypertension during pregnancy, the obstetrician will have a clear understanding of your situation, and the examination can be more targeted, without you having to recount the entire pregnancy and childbirth history from scratch.

If you go to a specialized hospital such as maternal and child care, there is a high probability that a special postpartum rehabilitation department has been opened, and it would be more appropriate to enroll in this department. Last year, I accompanied my sister to their local maternal and child care center for a review. In addition to routine uterine involution and wound examinations, the doctor at the postpartum rehabilitation department also specially gave her a detailed pelvic floor muscle assessment and rectus abdominis separation test. She even gave her several relaxation exercises that she could do at home for chronic lumbar muscle strain caused by incorrect posture when holding the baby. It was more of a guide to postpartum functional recovery than a regular obstetric checkup, and it was a lot more worry-free for mothers who needed repairs.

Of course, not everyone has to be stuck in these two departments. If you have already given birth for several months or even a year or two before you remember to do postpartum recovery examinations. There are no problems such as wound healing or uterine involution in the early postpartum period, but you just want to check for problems such as urine leakage, sexual discomfort, and menstrual disorders. It is perfectly fine to go to the gynecology department. It was almost a year after my colleague gave birth that he discovered that he was leaking urine when he sneezed. He immediately called a gynecologist. The doctor also prescribed an ultrasound evaluation of the pelvic floor muscles. The subsequent repair plan was no different from that prescribed by the postpartum rehabilitation department.

There is another common pitfall that needs to be reminded. Many mothers are promoted by various confinement centers and private rehabilitation institutions right after they are discharged from the hospital. They say that they can do a full set of postpartum examinations directly without going to the hospital to register. Don’t believe it. Many of the test results of the institutions are not those of regular hospitals. Seriously, my neighbor downstairs was deceived by the agency that she had three fingers separated from her rectus abdominis, which required tens of thousands of repair treatments. As a result, she went to the hospital's obstetrics department for a checkup and found that one finger was not separated. She can slowly recover by doing core training at home. I paid thousands of dollars in deposits and can't get them back.

If you are really not sure which one you should register for, calling the hospital’s guidance desk in advance to ask a few questions is much more reliable than guessing on your own.