Nhs/bounty packs - promoting Tena Lady

[womenshealthrant]

So I have came across a bounty pack that I was given when I had ds, three years ago, Which I stuffed into the back of the drawer.

AIBU to be horrified that they are promoting Tena lady to new mums by giving away free samples?

I just feel like it’s a poor promotion for women’s health. Why not a friendly, helpful leaflet, how to do your pelvic floors, and if you still have problems get a referral to physio?

Its basically the subliminal message, put a nappy on, like your newborn, you are a mother now, and accept the consequences of childbirth.

No one ever asked about my bladder and when I complained to my gp about it at six week check, I was told ‘do your pelvic floors’ without further instruction.

I think it’s really poor care for new mums.
And Tena are just coining in on neglected health needs, with their fancily wrapped continence products and glamorous models.
I feel like it normalises a problem, that could be curable for so many women. If only they had the correct treatment post natally.

"The bounty pack says I can use tena lady so I am not gonna bother with pelvic floor exercises I would just rather just leak urine for the next 50 years" is hardly likely to be what most women think when they look through the bounty pack. YABU

The initial couple of days in hospital they're fantastic for the blood while you have mobility issues, fresh scars, heavy bleeding, can't use tampons and get stuck under a baby for lengthy periods of time in a bed. I'd highly recommend them. Word was out in all my pregnancy groups, it sounded like an essential for that reason and I wasn't disappointed. I didn't wee in mine, I presume they're ok for that too. You aren't being unreasonable as such, you just didn't realise what new mums might find them useful for.

Oh yeah - they were also suggested for travel to the hospital when your waters have broken. I didn't need that either, but was intending to use one in that situation.

I used the pants for the first few post-natal days instead of maternity pads- would definitely recommend them.

They were also good for reassurance when I wasn’t 100% confident in my pelvic floor immediately after the birth. I never needed them but it was nice knowing if I pissed myself infront on my inlaws the Tena could handle it

Maybe. They are primarily for ‘bladder weakness’ however not Lochia/sanitary protection.
I saw a Tena lady advert this evening with a very glamorous woman on it and it all just seemed so normalised.
And this combined with finding the bounty pack just got me thinking about how much Tena must be raking it in due to poor treatment of post natal incontience.

Whilst I also fully accept that for some people no matter what they do, they will still have a leaky bladder, and they need and have every right to be able to purchase good protection, how many are just living with a problem that could have been treated?

Gareth I appreciate that may not be a women’s initial thought. But then how much emphasis is placed on pelvic floor health?
My physio (accessed privately not nhs) said to me that it’s not thought about until it’s not working properly. And that so many women have no clue if they are even doing a pelvic floor excercise properly.

So maybe combined with the lack of information/treatment out there, I just think that giving out these products is like saying accept your lot, after all there is realistically bugger all help from the nhs in many areas of the country.

It seems like British women get a poor deal in this area of healthcare, when in other European countries women are given so much support during pregnancy/post natal about these problems.

I can see the arguement for practical use post natally.
Maybe it’s just in combination with the lack of information/help actually sorting your pelvic floor out after birth.

I saw a Tena lady advert this evening with a very glamorous woman on it and it all just seemed so normalised There are millions of women, especially of retirement age, for whom bladder weakness is normal, why should we make something that is common and normal seem abnormal? Some women post pregnancy suffer from temporary incontinence, the postnatal care is what it is and I am sure most women would choose tena lady over no protection whatsoever.

So while I agree that postnatal care could definitely be improved I don't blame tena lady or bounty for recognising a need and meeting that need.

I was given leaflets and had my pelvic floor exercises asked about multiple times by midwives, health visitor and GP. The antenatal classes also focused on it a lot, particularly pregnancy yoga. Maybe some areas are better than others. What kind of extra support would have helped you?

I remember Gussie grips posting about how incontinence shouldn't be normalised, or words to that effect

As I have said it does have a purpose and some women may not recovery from post natal incontinence. But many could. Why should women live with something that can be fixed?

And even if it may be manageable for some time with products, for some it may worsen and they may need surgery because of it.

So I don’t think it’s ethical for the nhs to allow promotion of a product, that is more like a sticky plaster than a cure, when they aren’t doing enough to address the health need of women.
Particularly when they will pick up the bill later for some of them who require surgery for incontiencne/bladder prolapse.

Found it
https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/guest_posts/2085688-Guest-post-Stress-incontinence-Fallen-fanjos-are-a-feminist-issue

I was told nothing about it during pregnancy.
I didn’t do pregnancy yoga admittedly but I was never advised to and these would have been probate classes.
Midwife never mentioned it but I think they are so busy with everything else.
When I complained to the gp post natally, I was given a leaflet and sent on my way.
When ds was over one I had private physio and she told me I wasn’t contracting properly.
And learning properly how to do them really helped me.
She said it’s a very common problem that women struggle with the exercises and so many just forget about it and even trying when meeting their babies needs, stick a pad on and get on with things.

For many women it's not as simple as 'do your pelvic floors'. NHS cuts are hitting Continence Clinics which provide good advice including the correct way to do pelvic floors. It's not just pulling everything up.

Oh well if nothing else and the majority don’t agree with me, any pregnant women reading
DO YOUR PELVIC FLOORS

I wished someone had warned me during pregnancy. If you don’t know what they are, then ask.
And if you can have a bit money put by for a couple of private physio sessions, if you need them after the birth (could always badger gp for an nhs referral but I don’t know how far you’d get).

But in fairness, private physio is probably cheaper than 30+ years or more of buying Tena!

I can’t see what’s wrong with having some Tena lady in the pack. It means the mother doesn’t have to go through the embarrassment of buying them/asking bloke to pick some up if she finds she’s a bit pelvic floor challenged.

I use them when I’m running because no matter how many pelvic floor exercises I do I can’t guarantee that I won’t leak, and I don’t want to be embarrassed. I know other women runners who do this too, in conjunction with the exercises. Tena lady are much better than the always ones, which strip the skin off you! If it was the always ones included then I’d be annoyed!

they are promoting a clean dry comfortable perineum. if you choose to see it as promoting, weak bladders and dribbling for life you are mistaken. hemorrhoid pads (that have witchhazel) and kept cold in the fridge feel amazing on a healing perineum...the staff that recommend these are not suggesting hemorrhoids for life either...
I suggest you rant about something you actually know about, which clearly isn't the use of tena products when you are bleeding post birth like a stuck pig and have an odd jelly like abdomen for which your pregnancy underwear are too big for and your pre pregnancy thongs aren't big enough to even hold a pad in place.

Well I know a bit about my own experience of the difficulties I had and what helped.
And that I felt like help wasn’t forthcoming post natally I had to actively seek it out.
Where as the incontinence products were given to me, the health information was not.

I found them brilliant for lochia, which can be very heavy for some women. I didn't think of trying them until many days postpartum. The "maternity pads" I'd tried weren't up to the job. Really wish somebody had given me a few Tena Lady pads before I gave birth! Getting up additional times in the night to change a pad, and having extra washing to do when the pads leaked, was really not what I needed when recovering from giving birth and learning to look after a new baby.

Never used them but am surprised about the size of the Tena lady section in supermarkets these days. I don’t remember seeing all these products 20 years ago next to the sanitary towels. Has bladder weakness become more common or was it always so common but not catered for before?

Itsear, it's probably at the same rate as it always has been, it's just that Tena seem like the first firm to "mass market" the pads. I'm glad that it is becoming more normalised, it gets people talking and hopefully feeling less alone.

womens it's all very well complaining that "Tena are just coining in on neglected health needs" and you may well be right but what are women meant to do in the interim? No woman should have to walk around drenched in her own piss and it must be far less embarrassing to simply pop a pack in with the weekly shop.

I saw a Tena lady advert this evening with a very glamorous woman on it and it all just seemed so normalised

And why shouldn't it. It's not just women who've been pregnant that suffer from incontinence. And pelvic floor exercises don't fix them all. Why should women feel it's something to be ashamed of?

I completely agree with you that too many of us accept pelvic floor issues as mum issues or have been made by other GPs to be 'just one of those things'.

However i disagree with you on not giving tena lady, seeing those in the pack made me thankful to not be alone (sounds terrible I know but PND does that.) For most nhs gps you need to wait 6 months to heal and then they quickly refer. But it can take 6 months to exercise.

Plus as someone who diligently did exercises i was shocked and upset to have double incontinence for several months and incontinence for over a year. It isnt always thag the exercises are a magic thing that will stop the issue. Mine was related to assisted delivery injury and when i had the physio it wasn't the exercises i needed.

I do agree, get a referral if you have issues and make sure you drink loads of water. Anything but that irritates the bladdder so it hates holding it.

Perhaps contact bounty too to get them to put the exercises in the book? Though i must admit i thought they were

Agree completely op. I think the chief medical officer raised urinary incontinence a few years ago as a condition affecting women which should be on the whole preventable. I'm not sure that much has changed, but at the very least they should also include a leaflet explaining it isn't (on the whole) inevitable, and what to do.

I used Tena on the advice of my midwife alongside doing pelvic exercise also on the advice of my midwife- from day one post childbirth.

They were fantastic.

There definitely is a problem with how women are expected to lump incontinence when it could be avoided or minimised. Not just through pelvic floor exercise but also core strength exercises. The nhs has a long way to go.

Reading your updates, I'm surprised your midwife didn't ask. Mine explained how to do them for later at my first appointment and asked pretty much every time in my last trimester. That's a midwife failing i think as i know several friends who've been told to be diligent too.

Also surprised ante natal classes didn't mention it. Perhaps its dependent on how luck you are with a midwife? Mine was pretty good.