Nishmat's Women’s Health and HalachaIn memory of Chaya Mirel bat R' Avraham

  • Hebrew
  • English
  • Espnaol
  • Francais
  • donate
Menu
Side Bar

Postpartum checkup

5 January, 2003
Question:

I gave birth just over six weeks ago and hope to go to the mikvah in a few days.  Today I had my six week follow-up checkup.  Do I need to worry that it might have caused niddah bleeding and that I need to start the seven clean days again?


Answer:

Mazal tov on the recent birth of your baby!

A standard postpartum checkup involves a speculum exam to help the doctor visualize the cervix, a manual exam in which s/he inserts 1-2 fingers into the vagina to examine the state of the reproductive organs, and sometimes a Pap smear. None of these procedures involves opening the cervix and therefore they do not make you niddah.

We follow the halachic position that a woman does not need to ask her physician if they saw uterine bleeding and does not need to look at anything that was inserted internally. If blood is nevertheless observed on an instrument or a glove that was inserted internally, ask if it might have been the result of a scratch or irritation from the procedure and consult us or a local halachic authority for help determining your status. Bleeding that starts shortly after the examination is assumed to be dam makkah (bleeding from an abrasion) and does not invalidate the clean days.

We recommend performing the bedikah for that day before your appointment, and skipping the afternoon bedikah. If you had a Pap smear, or if your doctor informed you that there may be some bleeding due to abrasion, we recommend skipping bedikot on the following day as well. However, you must have an acceptable bedikah on day seven of the clean days in order to immerse on time. Please get back to us, our telephone hotline, or a local halachic authority with any further questions.

B’hatzlacha!

This response was updated on 14 November, 2022.

 

This internet service does not preclude, override or replace the psak of any rabbinical authority. It is the responsibility of the questioner to inform us of any previous consultation or ruling. As even slight variation in circumstances may have Halachic consequences, views expressed concerning one case may not be applied to other, seemingly similar cases. All health and health-related information contained within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is intended to be general in nature and should not be used as a substitute for consulting with your health care professional. The advice is intended to offer a basis for individuals to discuss their medical condition with their health care provider but not individual advice. Although every effort is made to ensure that the material within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is accurate and timely, it is provided for the convenience of the Web site user but should not be considered official. Advice for actual medical practice should be obtained from a licensed health care professional. For further questions or comments:  The Nishmat Women's Health and Halacha Site is a public service of Nishmat, The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women. This project and others like it are made possible by contributions from people like you. If you have benefited from the service, and wish to enable us to help others, click here to donate.
Users of Internet filtering services: This site discusses sensitive subjects that some services filter without visual indication. A page that appears 100% complete might actually be missing critical Jewish-law or medical information. To ensure that you view the pages accurately, ask the filtering service to whitelist all pages under yoatzot.org.

Accessibility Toolbar