Issue: Is every blood discharge that occurs at delivery considered postnatal bleeding?

Answer: This may take several forms:

First: she miscarries a drop of semen. This blood is disordered blood, not postnatal bleeding.

Second: she delivers that which has completed four months. This is, without disagreement, postnatal bleeding, because the soul has been breathed into it and we are certain that it is a human being. These two extremes are agreed upon; what lies between them is disputed.

Third: she miscarries a blood clot. There is a difference of opinion concerning this.

The well-known position of the madhhab is that it is neither menstrual blood nor postnatal bleeding.

Some scholars held that it is postnatal bleeding. (1) They reasoned that the fluid, which was a drop of semen, has changed from its former state into the origin of a human being—namely, blood. Thus, we are certain that this miscarriage is a human being.

Fourth: she miscarries an unformed lump of flesh.

The well-known position of the madhhab is that it is not postnatal bleeding.

Some scholars held that it is postnatal bleeding. (935)

They reasoned that blood may spoil, with no human being developing from it; but once it has become a lump of flesh, we are certain that it is a human being. Therefore, her blood is postnatal blood.

Fifth: she miscarries a formed lump of flesh, such that its head, hands, and legs can be distinguished.

The majority of scholars—and this is the well-known position of the madhhab—hold that it is postnatal bleeding.

The reasoning is that, if it is miscarried without having been formed, it may be blood