I'm really dreading bleeding after the birth, some advice needed

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So I know the birth will be painful but bizarrely it's the post birth bleeding that I am dreading. Is it really awful? Does the baby come out and straight away blood gushes out? I've read on here that on your way to your first post birth shower in the hospital that its possible I will be leaking blood all over the floor

I'm absolutely dreading this, I haven't used a pad since I was 16. I really don't know how I will cope with it.

I didn't bleed too badly, mainly a small rush during BF which felt a lot worse than it was. I did use two mat pads even with minimal bleeding as they were so comfy on my stitches

No, it's just like a heavy period tbh.

I did have a PPH - that is a different issue, so straight after he was born I continued to bleed, and it could have been serious but they gave me an injection and it stopped within a minute. It was just to do with the uterus not closing down properly, quickly enough.

After that, the bleeding was just normal - like a period, heavy for a couple of days and then it just got fairly light and stopped after a week or two.

So what is the best arrangement for double pad-ing? Side to side, end to end or am I missing a trick here?

Mine wasn't bad at all- a few days quite heavy but I've had periods heavier and then only a couple of weeks of very light bleeding.

really really heavy period.

I used to walk to the toilet holding the inco pad things under me.
and yes, you'll bleed in the shower, because the blood pools when you're sitting/lying and is released when you stand up.

It really isn't as bad as you think it might be - you just get used to it.

Massive pads, I didn't do double padding because like Lois i couldn't work out how!
just made sure i had a bath towel under me on the bed and just accepted that it might be messy for a while.

I used to stand over the toilet and pour a jug over my nethers when I went to the toilet, to wash, and then dab with baby wipes before putting a new pad on.

I used Kotex night time pads, I had c section so no shredding of nethers.

Have a pad to hand the second you turn off the shower, pop it between your legs (don't remove strip from the back) that will catch the blood and then put a clean fresh one in your oversized granny knickers (so comfy)

My biggest problem when I came out the shower was leaking breast milk. I literally had DH on standby, I would put pad between my legs, he would hold two breast pads against my nipples, and I would dry myself and get a bra on with breast shells to catch the milk.

I agree with having a jug to pour lovely warm water over your nethers when you go to the toilet. Helps you feel cleaner.

I hadn't worn pads since I was 13 but it was all fine. You may want to put a waterproof mattress cover on your bed now and you can use bed mats (find them in the nappies aisle) disposable sheets that you can bin if you leak.

Always night time with wings - heavy flow. It is just like the worst of your period for longer. You will have inko pads on the bed (huge absorbent squares) and if you ask you could take some home as a back up for first couple of days/sofa/bed situations in case of a leak. You will be fine and remember every bleed means your uterus is contracting back to normal size :)

I put one pad on top of the other with gorgeous ginormous granny pants.

Jug of water while peeing is a great tip.

The only birth I noticed blood during the event was my third. Poor ds2 got a faceful that nicely coincided with his first breathe (why he was trying to breathe before he was fully out is a mystery) and he ended up with aspirated pneumonia and 5 days on SCBU. That is quite rare though, my other births I didn't see any blood, even with dd when my placenta ruptured and they told me there was blood in my waters.... I had a pph after her birth though and that I noticed! The midwives are saints, they remove anything involving blood or poo so quickly you don't get a chance to freak out

So those of you who have used two or more pads at once, how do you best arrange them in you knickers?

Haggis - end to end but overlapping, to make a giant long pad. You can get thinner maternity pads which I switched to after about 5-6 days.

A friend of mine told me she couldn't get her knickers on after her post-birth shower as the blood was coming out so fast!

But for me, I had very little blood loss, just stood in the shower for about 20 minutes and managed to get my knickers on no problem. They gave me this fab MASSIVE pad that actually taped on :) and then I used maternity pads for the next week, switched to 'normal' period pads, and by the end of week two, was using just very thin panty liners. Period started in the 4th week, started contraception pill by the 6th week.

I would recommend actually having a pad already in your knickers, ready for when you get out of the shower for the first couple of weeks. I would turn off the shower, hold a pad against me while I positioned myself over the knickers, then ta-da! Just whip out the pad, and yank up the pants!

One or more pads question- huge granny knickers, 2 side by side, and one over the top in the middle.

Re: pad arrangements. I put an always night-time on the bottom of my knickers, then put 2 maternity pads end-to-end with an overlap over the top. Couldn't find mat pads with wings (although have since been told mothercare do them). I found putting the Always pad underneath gave the mat pads something more rigid to stick to so they didn't crease up, and also gave some side protection.

Also, I couldn't find any of those disposable mats they use in the hospital, but then found disposable changing mats (by the nappies in supermarkets) and put one of those down on the bed or chair under me. Then if I did leak, could just bin it and carry on.

Fizzylemonade that's the funniest thing ive heard in ages

When I had DD my fanjo was a bit mangled (episiotomy and 3rd degree tearing) and I didn't get out of bed until the next day. I had one of those disposable mats underneath and a pad between my legs and no knickers

The bleeding isn't too bad. I bled for about four weeks in total. Yes it's heavy at first but it's not as bad as you would imagine

I agree with the disposable mats too - I had one on the car seat for the journey to the hospital, and then sat on one/had one on the bed for the first week after.

Boots sell them.

I hate pads too but they were actually quite nice and comfy to sit your sore bits on.

I remember about day 3 with DD1 a huge clot thing fell out, I saved it for the MW, she said it was fine! It's honestly not that bad.

I had our first last Thursday and for me, it really was not that bad. I waddled to the shower room with a pad and on and once showered changed into a pair of black sloggi's a size bigger than my normal size and put on a boots brand maternity pad.

I leaked a little in bed overnight mainly as I laid on my side but after that have not had any problems. I am not a fan of pads so change them every time I go to the loo and have not been uncomfotable at all!