Maternity pads - how many?

[dumpling123]

How many maternity pads should I expect to need after giving birth? Have 2 packs of ten in my bag for hospital and another 2 packs of ten for when I come home. Will I need more?

No one can possibly say. Surely every woman bleeds differently.

What you have would have been plenty for me but I couldn't have known that until I was in the moment.

I used several a day for at least 8 weeks. As long as you have some for your time in hospital and so you don't have to go out straight after you get home, that's fine.

Thank you both very much

I’d say get a couple more packs, especially right now with current circumstances. I really recommend the Lillets ones. I bought those and Boots but preferred Lillets. They had wings and are much longer (like a nappy) and didn’t leak at all. With the Boots ones they are nice and cushioned but I found I needed to wear two at the same time (and my bleeding wasn’t bad at all).

I needed them for about 3 or 4 weeks, although ordinary sanitary towels were sufficient by the end of that. So, say 6 per day x 14 days = 84 pads.

I did have c-sections though, maybe it's different if you give birth vaginally. I don't honestly know.

Get more, I had to get my mum to get me more , better to have too many than not enough.

Yes get more! Couple more packs and even just regular pads. I wore them for weeks and I also has a c section.

Don't be tempted to move onto proper sanitary towels too soon. They are plastic backed and contain gels and can make you sore. Good old fashioned cotton maternity pads are the right things for the job

More! I had to send my husband to get more whilst I was in the hospital, as did most of my friends. Next time I’m packing 3 packs for hospital and having another 5 at home, at least! Definitely get proper maternity pads - sanitary towels hurt and I ended up with an infection in my stitches, which the midwife said might have been caused or exacerbated by the plasticky sanitary towel.

Hard to say as every woman is different but I’d say definitely get more just in case. I bled for 6 weeks with my DS after a c-section but only 2 weeks after DD which was a natural birth. If you end up with too many you can always use them as sanitary towels at a later date so they don’t go to waste.

I’d say 10 packs of 10 would be fairly safe. I went back to Boots a couple times to get more after DS was born. Used 2 at a time for the first 1-2 weeks after vaginal birth. Probably could have used regular pads after the first few weeks but the maternity ones were more comfortable.