The questions that reset the timeline
If you ask nothing else, ask these, and ask them before you need them.
Everything in this stage comes down to a small number of conversations, most of which are easier to start before you are exhausted and unwell.
The schedule ACOG recommends is contact within three weeks, care as often as you need it after that, and a full visit no later than twelve weeks. Many practices still run a single six-week appointment. You are allowed to ask for the schedule that guidance actually describes.
And be ready for the answer that ends conversations. Being told a symptom is normal is not the same as being told it is nothing. Both can be true at once: it can be common, and it can also be worth treating. In one Australian population survey, a quarter of the women had not talked to any health professional about their own health since the birth, and the commonest reason women give for staying quiet is believing that what they feel is normal.
One thing is worth doing before you need it. CDC keeps a list of urgent maternal warning signs, the symptoms it says to seek care for immediately. CDC tells women to be aware of them during pregnancy and in the year after delivery, although one item on the list carries a narrower window than that. Either way, it is not a six-week list. Read it once while you are well, and ask which of the things you already have are on it.
"What number do I call at 2am in week three?"
"Which symptoms mean today, not next week?"
"Which of these would you expect to have settled by now?"
"If this is not better by three months, what happens then?"
"Is there anything that would help, even if it is normal?"
"Can you write in the notes that I raised it?"