Night vs maternity pads?

[Tokyotwist]

Read somewhere that night sanitary pads were better than maternity ones, so I stocked up today, but then remembered some deeply buried message from my midwife last time to make sure I had maternity and not night ones.

Anyone know why this would be an issue and anyone with any strong preference?

I always use maternity ones in hospital and then use normal night time ones once im out of hospital.

I used both, somewhat at random depending on what I'd remembered to buy or DH brought back. I don't remember there being much of a difference between them TBH.

Normal night pads (I believe) use a sort of plastic in order to prevent leakage but allow them to be thinner, thus not allowing your bits (and any tears/stitches etc) to breathe, whereas maternity pads are cotton.

I think, anyway.

To add - I used normal night time ones when I got home with no problems and they didn't feel like I was carrying a mattress in my pants.

Can remember being told not to use night ones because they have stuff in them to disguise smells and really the smell can be the first thing to alert you if you get an infection.

It's to do with breathability for healing. And also the fact that normal pads will absorb clots to some extent whereas maternity pads dont and therefore can alert you to a potential problem.

I always used the maternity ones for the first 3-5 days then changed to normal.

They also add a little more padding!

Also you want to avoid any pads with contours or shaping- which some night time pads have. the bumps can play havoc if you've had stitches! I rememberthis particularly well as my dh buying me the wrong sort of pads after i'd had ds caused me to have a total hormonal meltdown!! My best were kotex nighttime- which reminds me I must stock up...!

Though I hated them, maternity pads were pretty good for the first 2 days for the heaviest bleeding. Just wish they had wings. I used Always after that once the worst of it was over.

Thanks ladies. Looks like I'll need to restock, but it makes a lot of sense.