How long is the postnatal period? What is the ruling about the acts of worship that are not performed during this period?

Postnatal period (nifas) refers to the condition in which a woman’s bleeding continues after giving birth or having miscarriage, or abortion. That period is called pospartum. Duration of this period differs for every woman. It depends on women’s physical structure, heredity, and environmental conditions.

There is no lower limit in the postnatal period. Upper limit is forty days according to the Hanafi school and sixty days according to Shafi’i school. The blood seen after exceeding the upper limit is not postnatal but excuse blood. Moreover, if the blood coming in the days of postnatal period ceases for a while and then continues, the days when bleeding ceases are also deemed to be included in the postnatal period (Aliyy al-qari, Fath Bab al-‘Inayah, I, 144-145; Shirbini, Mughni al-muhtaj, I, 185).

Women cannot have sexual intercourse in their postnatal period (Baqarah, 2/222); cannot establish prayer, nor can they observe fasting (Bukhari, Haidh, 6; Muslim, Haidh, 16, 67-69), and cannot circumambulate the Ka’bah (Bukhari, Haidh, 1, 7).

Women do not establish qada prayer for the prayers they cannot perform due to their menstruation and postnatal periods; however, they make up for the missed fardh fasts (Muslim, Haidh, 67-69).

If the bleeding of a woman who gives birth ceases before forty days, she gets washed (performs ghusl) and starts to perform her acts of worship.

Source: Presidency Of Religious Affairs The Turkey, High Board of Religious Affairs FATWAS

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