Chills and body aches 2 weeks postpartum

Recovery, interrupted sleep, dehydration, and physical strain can cause aching, but new chills are not something to dismiss. A uterine infection, breast infection, urinary infection, or another illness may cause chills with fever, pelvic pain, foul-smelling discharge, breast redness, cough, or pain when passing urine. COVID-19 or influenza can also cause body aches. Less common conditions such as dengue fever, malaria, brucellosis, fibromyalgia, or hypothyroidism require different clues and treatment; recent travel and the longer pattern matter.

Take your temperature, drink regularly, rest with practical help, and note bleeding, discharge, breast changes, wound symptoms, urinary symptoms, and medication use. Contact your maternity team or clinician promptly if chills are new, recurrent, or accompanied by pain or feeling unwell. Keep breastfeeding or expressing if you can unless your clinician advises otherwise, and do not take leftover antibiotics.

Seek emergency help for severe breathlessness, chest pain, confusion, fainting, a seizure, heavy bleeding, severe abdominal pain, or sudden deterioration. Get same-day medical advice for a fever, shaking chills, worsening pelvic or breast pain, foul-smelling discharge, redness around a wound, or inability to drink. Postpartum infection can need examination and prescription treatment, so waiting for symptoms to settle may be unsafe.

Could this be a uterine, breast, urinary, or wound infection? Do I need an examination or tests? Which pain and fever medicines are compatible with feeding my baby?