During the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, a woman in postnatal confinement would remain in seclusion for forty days, and we used to apply wars on our faces to treat the dark blemishes.
كانت النفساء يجلس على عهد رسول الله ﷺ أربعين يوما، فكنا نطلي وجوهنا بالورس من الكلف.
Reported by Abu Dawud (311), Tirmidhi (139), and Ibn Majah (698), all of them through the hadith of Ali bin Abdul-Ala, from Abu Sahl, from Massa Azdiyya, from Umm Salama, and he related it as mentioned. Tirmidhi said, "This is a gharib hadith. We only know it through the hadith of Abu Sahl, from Massa, from Umm Salama. The name of Abu Sahl is Kathir bin Ziyad." Muhammad bin Ismail said, "Ali bin Abdul-Ala is trustworthy, and Abu Sahl is trustworthy, and this hadith is not known except through the hadith of Abu Sahl."Abu Dawud also reported it by another route, through the hadith of Abdullah bin Mubarak, from Yunus bin Nafi, from Kathir bin Ziyad (who is Abu Sahl), who said, the Azdiyya woman (meaning Massa) told me, she said, I performed hajj and went to see Umm Salama, and I said, "Mother of the believers, Samura bin Jundab is instructing women to make up the prayers missed during their postnatal bleeding." She said, "They should not make them up. A woman among the wives of the Prophet ﷺ would sit in her postnatal period for forty nights, and the Prophet ﷺ would not instruct her to make up the prayers of that period."Abu Dawud said, "Kathir bin Ziyad's kunya is Abu Sahl."I say, the men of this chain are trustworthy except for Massa (with the first letter doubled and pronounced with a damma) Azdiyya, whose kunya was Umm Bassa (with the ba doubled and pronounced with a damma, and the sin doubled). There is disagreement about her status. Nawawi graded her hadith hasan in al-Khulasa (1/241), and Hakim graded it sahih in al-Mustadrak (1/175), as did Ibn Hajar in Bulugh Maram. A group of narrators reported from her, among them Kathir bin Ziyad, Abu Sahl, Hakam bin Utayba, Zayd bin Ali bin Husayn, and others.The majority of scholars have held that the maximum duration of postnatal bleeding is forty days. Among them are Umar, Uthman, Ayesha, Umm Salama, Ata, Thawri, Ahmad bin Hanbal, Malik, and others.Shaykh bin Baz, may Allah have mercy on him, said, "Once she completes the forty days, she must perform ghusl even if she has not seen the sign of purity, because the forty days mark the end of the postnatal period according to the more correct of the two scholarly opinions. After that, she must perform wudu for the time of each prayer until the bleeding stops from her, just as the Prophet ﷺ instructed the woman with chronic bleeding to do. Her husband may have intimate relations with her after the forty days even if she has not seen the sign of purity, because in that situation the blood is corrupted blood that does not prevent prayer or fasting, nor does it prevent her husband from having intimate relations with her. However, if the bleeding after the forty days coincides with her usual menstrual cycle, she should abstain from prayer and fasting and treat it as menstruation." End of quote.Tirmidhi said in his Sunan, "The companions of the Prophet ﷺ, the successors, and those after them have reached consensus that a woman in her postnatal period abstains from prayer for forty days, unless she sees the sign of purity before that, in which case she performs ghusl and prays." End of quote.This time limit has also been reported from a number of companions, among them Anas bin Malik, whose narration was reported by Ibn Majah (649), though it contains Salam Tawil, who is discarded as a narrator, Uthman bin Abu As, Abdullah bin Amr, Jabir, Ayesha, Abu Hurairah, Abu Darda, and others. All of these narrations are flawed. See Sunan al-Kubra (1/343).A note of caution, I was misled by the statement of Busiri regarding the hadith of Anas bin Malik in Zawaid bin Majah, for he said, "Its chain is sahih and its narrators are trustworthy." It later became clear to me that this was one of his errors. Salam bin Sulaym, or Salm, is not Abu Ahwas the trustworthy narrator as he assumed, but rather is Tawil, as confirmed by Ibn Adi in al-Kamil (1/301), Ibn Hibban in al-Majruhin (1/339), Daraqutni (1/220), and Bayhaqi (1/343), all stating that he is Tawil, Abu Sulayman Madaini. Ahmad said of him, "He reported munkar hadiths." Ibn Main said, "He is daif, his hadith is not to be recorded." Abu Hatim said, "His hadith is daif, and scholars have abandoned it." Nasai said, "He is discarded."So whoever has Minna Kubra (1/233) should correct that and mark the hadith as daif.