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.

Here in France every women leaves the hospital after giving birth with a prescription for pelvic floor «re-education» ie physio. This means you can go to a physiotherapist of your choice whenever you are ready, they will assess yr pelvic floor area and follow up with therapy and exercises. The prescription is good for a set number of sessions (6 or 12 I think), and it can be renewed simply by going back to the dr. It’s considered absolutely standard here, and I have read that France has one of the lowest rates of incontinence in older women as a result.

Yes yabu

Why shouldn't urinary incontinence be normalised? It is very common, and the more it is normalised, the more confident women (and men) will feel about requesting treatment.

Two different meanings of the word I think. It should be talked avout more. We should not accept it as inevitable.

StealthPolarBear has coined it very succinctly i think.

Tena are useful though, and my 78 year old Mum uses them. Always also do small pads for this....would you be as aggrieved if there was a packet of those in there? I was encouraged the other day to see incontinence products for men in one of my local supermarkets.

Just to clarify something the Tena ladies I have found are light ones not those pants ones so they would have been no use for lochia anyway.
They are very clearly for incontinence.
I know about the pants ones however and could see why people might find them helpful post natally, might have been given a sample of these too and used it I’m really not sure newborn days are a haze.

There may well be be general leaflet somewhere in one of those booklets, but these generic and somewhat vague explanations were no good for me anyway.

I fully accept that I will probably have a worsening in symptoms post menopause and like many women I will probably need these products daily, as opposed to occasional times when I do some exercise

I think I found the message after I had my son was, this is inevitable, rather than a temporary problem for most people in their 30s, if you can get the right treatment. I think someone on here actually recommended getting myself to a private physio.
I appreciate everyone is different however and some people may have found the products helped them feel less isolated.
Maybe my area is just very bad at addressing these problems and it is better elsewhere in the country, I hope that is the case.

I personally found this dvd really helpful also for anyone who is interested.

www.amazon.co.uk/Hab-Pelvic-Floor-Prolapse-Problems/dp/B004P9JVGQ?tag=mumsnetforum-21

I don’t see why there couldn’t be a dvd like this included in bounty, designed by the nhs.
The extra instructions and core exercise may be all some women need, rather than individual 1-1 with a physio. Could save them money in the long run.
That Gussiegrips thread a poster linked is also a very interesting read, I’ve came across her before on here she makes some good points in a humourous way.

What the OP is saying is that because pads for this are so commonly found its obviously a big problem as they must have a big market for this.
And no its not normal why should a woman expect this as a side effect of giving birth?.
Many women feel embarrassed enough to discuss this with their gp then to be told it's a common thing,go and do pelvic floor exercises which will not help everyone and basically go away and put up with it.
I don't even get why older women are forced to put up with it so once we get old we are going to need tenna lady for the rest of our lives?
And if that is the case they should be given away free as buying these products on a regular basis are expensive and yet again an issue men don't have to deal with.

People suggesting educational material should be put in the bounty pack - it’s a marketing thing! Bounty are not there to help you, they are there to sell to you. They won’t give a fuck about the messages they are sending. Personally I think it’s awful that advertisers are allowed access to vulnerable just given birth women 24/7, indeed at times when their own partners, mothers, sisters, can’t come on to the wards.

Well exactly, which is why it's in or out and the op suggests out. And I agree. Although they could do their brand some good by focusing on incontinence as an issue, although obviously if successful it would impact on sales.

I only realised I had bladder weakness at my first exercise class about 6 months after my daughter was born. Wish I'd had Tena Lady for those star jumps!

Thanks stealth,user and changed.
You have articulated what I meant better than me.

It's kind of a good thing and a bad thing.
It's good that incontinence is being treated as less of a taboo. For years people, particularly women, suffered in silence, just accepting that it's something that is part and parcel of being a woman who's given birth. Using sanitary towels, which didn't really do the job properly (on that note, I imagine it was worse for men, as they didn't even have that). So it's good that there's products catering to a real problem.

The flip side is that the promotion of stuff like Tena may normalise it too much, leaving people (particularly women) to think that it's inevitable and irreversible. There are cases where it will be, but for most, it can be remedied with the correct support. My midwife who saw me antenatally asked me if I was aware of pelvic floor exercises, and was delighted that I'd already started them, but double checked that I was doing them properly. The community midwives were the same postnatally. From the sounds of it, not all do though - I wonder if it varies from trust to trust?