Postnatal checks in Australia

Two separate schedules

Australia splits postnatal care between two tracks that run in parallel. Your baby is followed by the child health nurse service, which is free and available to every Australian family from birth to school age. You are followed by your GP or obstetrician, and your own check is a distinct Medicare-funded consultation rather than something folded into the baby's appointment.

Each state and territory sets its own schedule, and the one that applies to you is printed in the child health record book every parent receives when their baby is born. It goes by different names and colours in different states; take it to every appointment, because it is where growth, immunisations and development are recorded.

Your baby's health checks

Recommended contact points in the first year are:

• At birth
• 1 to 4 weeks
• 6 to 8 weeks
• 4 months
• 6 months
• 12 months

After that, checks are recommended at 1 year, 18 months, 2, 3 and at 4 or before starting school, with attendance advised until your child turns 5. Babies who were born prematurely, have health problems needing monitoring, or are growing slowly may be seen more often.

What happens at a check

For babies, the nurse or doctor examines your baby from head to toe, weighs and measures them, and examines the head and skin. At certain ages they check the eyes, hip abduction and leg length, and test vision and hearing. You will be asked about feeding, sleep, behaviour and what you have noticed about your baby's development, and the professional will observe your baby and use activities to gauge progress.

Measurements are plotted on percentile charts. What matters is the pattern over time rather than a single reading — whether your baby is tracking along the same curve. As a benchmark, most babies regain their birth weight between 10 and 14 days after birth, and double it or more over the first year.

These appointments are also when routine vaccinations under the National Immunisation Program are given, so keeping to the schedule keeps immunisation on time as well.

Your own postnatal check

Australia funds a specific postnatal consultation through the Medicare Benefits Schedule, item 16407. The requirements are precise. The attendance must be by an obstetrician or general practitioner, in hospital or at consulting rooms, between 4 and 8 weeks after the birth, and must last at least 20 minutes. It is payable once only for a pregnancy.

Critically, the item requires the consultation to include a mental health assessment, covering screening for drug and alcohol use and for domestic violence. That is not an optional add-on the clinician may skip; it is written into the item. You can decline the assessment without losing the benefit, but you should be offered it.

The schedule fee is $85.80, with a Medicare benefit of 75% ($64.35) or 85% ($72.95), following the schedule fee update of 1 July 2026. The Extended Medicare Safety Net cap for the item is $55.80. If your practice bulk bills, you pay nothing; if not, you pay the gap between the doctor's fee and the benefit. Telehealth equivalents exist for the same 4-to-8-week postnatal attendance and carry the same mental health assessment requirement.

What to raise at it

Twenty minutes is longer than a standard consultation for a reason. Bring the things that are easy to leave unsaid: how you are feeling emotionally, bleeding that has not settled, pain during sex, bladder or bowel leakage, caesarean or perineal wound healing, contraception, and whether cervical screening is now due. If you had gestational diabetes or high blood pressure in pregnancy, ask what follow-up testing you need and when.

If something does not feel right

The scheduled checks are a floor, not a ceiling. Children between birth and 5 can be seen by a child health nurse at any time if you have questions, and you should take your child to a doctor rather than a nurse if they are unwell, have a rash or a temperature. Home visits from a child health nurse are available to some families.

For yourself, do not hold a concern until the 4-to-8-week appointment. Postnatal depression and postnatal anxiety are both common and both treatable, and the earlier they are picked up the better the outcome. A GP, child health nurse or the Pregnancy, Birth and Baby helpline can all start that conversation.

Nurse or doctor?

Both do routine checks, and the practical difference is what each is set up for. Child health nurses work at community health centres and clinics, run the free service, and spend their working lives on infant growth and development, so they are often the better source on feeding, sleep, settling and whether a growth curve is a problem. General practitioners can do routine baby checks too, and are the right choice when your child is unwell, has a rash or a temperature, or when you need a referral. Many families use both.

If a nurse has concerns about your child's health or development, they may recommend more frequent checks or refer to a paediatrician or other specialist service. Vaccination is available through both community child health centres and GPs.

Getting the most out of the appointments

These visits are short and it is easy to leave having discussed only the weight chart. Three habits help.

• Write questions in the record book between visits. The book has space for your own notes on illnesses, accidents and medicines, and the questions you think of at 3am are the ones you will otherwise forget in the room.
• Bring your partner where you can. Both of you hearing the same answer about settling or feeding prevents a good deal of second-guessing later.
• Answer the question about you honestly. The nurse or GP will ask how you are, and it is a clinical question. Fine is not always the right answer.

If your baby was born prematurely, expect measurements and milestones to be interpreted against your original due date rather than the birth date, and expect more frequent checks while growth is being monitored.

Where to get help

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby is the national health service run by healthdirect and staffed by maternal child health nurses, and it is the right first call when you are not sure whether something warrants an appointment. Your state or territory child health service sets the local schedule and issues the record book. Services Australia handles Medicare, and your practice can tell you before you book whether item 16407 will be bulk billed.