Do I need Maternity Sanitary Towels (or will ordinary ones do)?

[chickane]

Hi,

I'm expecting my first in January and am in the process of getting my hospital bag together. Do I need to buy sanitary towels specific for post-birth or will ordinary ones do?

I don't want to buy the special ones if they are just another way of getting expectant parents to part with their cash if the ordinary ones I already have will do.

Thanks all.

PS Mumsnet rocks!

Just to go against the grain - I didn't! I had some nightime pads (Kotex?) for the first week, and then ordinary ultra-absorbent ones (Always?). The quicker you can move onto the ones with wings, the better they stay put IME. Also meant I could just bung them in my Ocado order and not have to make a special trip to the shops.

Ah well, Bramshott, if you online shop at Tesco's. they sell maternity towels. If you weren't so bloody posh, with yer Ocado shoppin'.......

I found the Mothercare maternity towels awful - walking around with loads of stitches and a misshapen sanitary brick in my large pants was not good. The Boots ones on the other hand were far more comfy.

The mothercare ones were awful. I used normal night-time ones.

Add my vote to big granny pants from primark - along with comfy pj's as i objected to getting dressed with my first born just wanted to gaze at him with wonder..... ahhhh!

I bought 2 packs of maternity pads and used most of them when my waters broke - the water kept coming and coming and I was a soggy wet mess. I gave up in the end. I used some of the maternity pads but quickly moved onto normal pads as I found the hugeness of them quite uncomfortable.

Poledra - now they were of course fairtrade and organic you know!

You need the ones without gel just cotton wool I bought Tesco ones for a pound. I was told the reason you need them is because if you have any problems with loss or clots the el sanitary towels can mask the amount of loss.

However I would advice against anyone who has any kind of a reaction to the always one using them post birth I run out used the always ones about a week post birth and thought they would be fine till I got some as I can sometimes have a bad reaction and I got the worst reaction to them ever about 20 sores came up all over that area and were bleeding everywhere the mw wanted to take me back in for them.

So even if the always ones have just made you sore once don't risk it because the reaction might be a hell of a lot worse than you know.

tesco maternity pads are good and cheap - and nice and padded, although i'll second kotex nighttime as an alternative

Definitely maternity pads and get loads. I bought two measly packets and I'd used those before I'd even had the baby (no bugger told me your water's continued to leak once they'd gone )

Tesco maternity pads were good for me and also the Kotex ones in the black pack. Also Primark big pants, soooo comfy!

I would also like to add that imo the best breast pads are the Tommy Tippee ones in the grey box.

Don't mean to hijack but as we're on the subject - experienced mothers - how many mat pads do you think I will need to start? At the moment I have 2 x boots normal ones (10 per pack) and 1 x kotex night (10 per pack - think these sound good from people's comments on here - or maybe as a winged layer under a boots one for first 24 hrs even?), 1 x boots ultra thin and a pack or always silk ones (I hear what everyone is saying re the gel and scratchiness - hence why I thought I'd try the silk ones for later on?).

Anyway it feels like loads but I bet I'll need more! Am taking two packs to hospital + ultra thin ones (mainly cos of lack of room in hospital bag for third big pack!) Wanted to see which I prefered first as can always send hubby out for some more...

The birthing centre I was in supplied them so didn't need as many as I thought - I bought about 3 packs I think and still have 1.5 packs left (handy, given that I'm pg again...)

I would get another two maternity packs I went through two packs (20 pads) in 48 hours on both mine and cried laughing when on dc2 I asked dp for a sanitary towel and he brought a panty liner.

OHHHHHH yes! You will need them! Get a few boxes full!

Seriously, you have never had bleeding like this. They NEVER tell you about this at the ante natal classes.

Remember you use 2 pads at a time for at least the first two days. Think I used 2 at a time for about 4 days with DC3. Then you go down to one towel at a time, so I would say 2 packs not going to be enough. Get some in and get your DH to bring them in when he visits. I think I had two or three packs in my hospital bag...

I had 6 packs of 10 sainsburys mat pads and used all but 4 of them. And I went onto thinner ones later on. Think lochia lasted 4wks.

Get loads as you wont want to worry about having to get more when you are just out of hosp. Doesnt matter if you have some left over.

Second recommnedation for cheap pants rather than disposable.

Oh and make sure you have a big enough bin for disposing of the pads in every batroom at home. They are huge when folded and wrapped.

My DH was fab sorting that- cant have been nice!

Oh and pack some in your labour bag (if differnt from hospital ward bag). You may need them in labour.

In the end I gave birth at home in the pool and my waters didnt break until close to the birth but I lost my show in a big way during labour and it was grim and more bloody than I expected. I needed the pads for wandering about the house trying to speed things up.

Same as everyone else, GET LOADS! Also second Tobermory's experience of hi-jacking Mr's jersey shorts to hold all the pads and avoid the CS scar. seriously, it's all 9 months periods rolled into one, and then some.

Also, don't get too tied up in how comfortable they will be. You may only be wearing them for 20 minutes at a time to start with.

Definitely buy cheap maternity pads 2-3 packs. I don't think I needed them for the blood loss but they were far more comfier in the early days. I felt quite swollen, bruised and sore! Agree with other posters about buying cheap knickers, disposables are pretty rubbish. Morrisons breast pads are only £1.60ish for a box of 50 and I found these as good as any. Good luck.x

After I had my little boy i bled for 9 weeks!!! The first 4 weeks were really heavy, then about 2 weeks of lighter, then just dribbles and brown stuff. I went to my GP about 4 times to check it was normal (It was!). You don't necessarily need the ones from boots / mothercare... I know tesco does their own range of maternity sanitary towels, but definitely you need something super-duper absorbant. I also started out with about 2-3 packs and had to send DH out on my first day back from hospital to buy more (as you can imagine, he was thrilled...). I had a CS so maybe if you have a natural birth some of the blood comes out too?
And while we are on the subject - pants - someone told me not to get the maternity pants, just to get some big pants in a multipack from asda etc. I would like to withdraw this recommendation - I was so swollen up with fluid retention that I had to cut the elastic every where! I am ususally size 12 and bought size 18.. and it was NOT comfortable. This time round I splashed out and bought propper maternity pants - even if you only have a couple of pairs they are so much more comfortable in all the right places.
And also - re: pajamas for hospital (after the birth) remember that you will be bleeding all over the place - so take an extra pair of jogging bottoms / dark pajama bottoms. I think havign a baby and the 12 hrs afterwards are horrific in terms of "how am I still alive after loosing this much blood".
Good luck though! Sorry about the TMI. x

I found maternity knickers (maternity rather than disposable) really comfy after the birth, or big stretchy granny knickers (the ones from Mackays were fab with DS2!).

I used Always night towels after the birth, but used the hospital's pads during the labour time.

I had one scary incident with the bleeding. All was going fine, until I had my first hold of DS2. It was about 12 hours after his birth (he was in SCBU). I cuddled him for about half an hour, and then he went back into his incubator. When I stood up I felt like I was haemhorraging. There was blood everywhere. I was so embarrassed. The nurses were fab though - showed me to the loo, gave me lots of pads, and by the time I came back the floor and chair had all been cleaned. It can't have been the first time they'd had that. All to do with hormones causing the uterus to contract more strongly when you're having your first cuddle with an ill baby.

No idea how many pads I needed. I bled for about 10 weeks with DS1 (turned out to be a bit of retained placenta though), and he was a C/S, don't think it was so long with DS2 (natural birth).

Do think about reusable/cloth sanitary towels if you're of that persuasion. I bought some special post-birth ones with the copious weeks of bleeding after DS1. Much much more comfortable than Always and the like. With DS2 I was an experienced cloth nappy user, so I made myself lots more out of multiple layers of old sweaters and fleece pjs! They're no trouble to wash - just soak in cold water and throw in with any dark washing. I think you can use mooncups after a while too, but I've never tried this [far too sore and squeamish emoticon]