Are maternity pads the same as sanitary towels?...

[clarebear1]

Is there a difference or is it best to get maternity towels?

(beginning to pack my hosp bag)

:-)

Maternity pads enable midwives to check for infection unlike sanitary towels.

And yes buy a few packs and make sure your partner knows where they are stocked in supermarket. The amount of men I have diverted from the feminine hygiene section in our local supermarket over the years after noticing their confused faces!

Definitely get mat pads not sanitary towels. I liked (as much as it is possible to 'like' a mat pad!) tesco ones. As someone said up thread, if you want to switch to normal pads after a week or two, go for kotex not always.

I would get maybe 4 or 5 packs and make sure hubby knows where they are in supermarket.

A friend recommended Tena incontinence pants for wearing post-birth, apparently less 'side-leakage' Thinking of trying that this time. Also thinking of wearing them for a week or two pre-birth, as my waters tend to break rather explosively!

I found that Kotex Night Time towels were much better than Maternity Pads as they were just as absorbent, but were larger and had better sticking power.

They were also much cheaper than Maternity pads - 99p a pack in Body Care.

My midwifes never looked at any of my mat pads - should they have?!

I used Boots own brand mat pads & found them really comfy, after a few days (when I got sick of sitting on a bread loaf) I switched to sanitary pads, night-time ones, extra long just in case!!

I bought cheapy pants from Asda rather than paper pants, weren't much more expensive either... and found them so comfortable that I'm still using them now! Not the same ones, mind, I was the size of an elephant then!

£1 for 10 at Tesco. Primark do cheapo big pants - £2.50 for 5.

Someone on here suggested using a pad with wings as a base and than maternity pad on top to help with leakage.

I switched over to Sainsburys ones from Boots ones as I personally found them more comfy.
I also put a couple of drops of diluted tea tree and witch hazel one the pad as well to help with the healing- I had stitches. I think it did help.

Primark in a big size pack of about 6 pants for £2 are amazing.
I will try some Tena lady pants this time too. Tiny bit scared.

I used Tena ladies even though not maternity pads, just preferred them. Maternity pads always seemed too narrow...

Get giant black pants (like full on granny knickers) I had an emergency c section and all the disposable ones dug straight into my incision wound and really irritated it. The small cheap black ones I had bought were painful too. I had one giant black pair of maternity pants that were awesome. I had to get DH to go out and buy loads more. In the end, who cares what the damn things cost you have just expelled a baby from your body dont you deserve something comfortable to wear? Disposable pants are the absolute pits comfort wise. (try some on before you go in to labour if you don't believe me)

I don't think maternity pads have the plasticy inner like normal sanitary pads do, and this is important for preventing infection, if you have stitches.

However I found I had to use 2 stacked on top of each other, and this provided a lot of much needed padding!
I liked the disposable knickers too, but when I had a c-section with ds the cheapo Primark big pants were brilliant.

I took in 2 packs of pads, had 2 at home (then sent out dh for more!)and 10 pairs of knickers.

This is probably a really stupid question (first timer), but how big is your belly in the first few days after giving birth? I like the idea of buying cheap granny pants, but don't know what size I will need to make them comfy. For example if you were a size 8-10 before getting pregnant, what size are you likely to be in the first few weeks after giving birth?

I would stick with whatever size you are when you're very pregnant, hefner. I have looked about 6 months pregnant for the first week or two after giving birth, and think that's not unusual.

Great, these are exactly the kinds of questions I was wondering about:
How many maternity pads am I likely to need? You are saying 1 pack or 2 packs or however many packs but the packs I've seen vary from 10-80 pads.
Also, how many breast pads should I stock up on to keep me going until I ready to battle on a bus to the city centre with a newborn? How many will I need?
I was planning to get cheap pants from Primark to wear and throw away as disposable pants look very uncomfortable. I was also considering getting some nightshirts from Primark to wear for labour as I could just throw them away afterwards too if necesary. Is this sensible? How do I know what size I will need? I am now 32 weeks but don't know how much bigger I will be at the birth and just afterwards. I'd like to buy these things in the next week or two so I have a hospital bag ready but can't guess how big I will be.

I am also 32 weeks and recently went to Primark- they have some brilliant 100% cotton dark navy and black/white striped nighties, with button down fronts. I bought 4 in a size 12-14, also got 2, 5 packs packs of black cotton knickers in a size 12-14- am thinking now though that maybe I should have bought bigger?!

I am petite, and have gone from a pre pregnancy size 10 to a maternity size 12- but do have a massive bump. Might have to go back and opt for a larger size, don't want to be uncomfortable..

Try Tena ladies pants. They are for incontinence, but so super absorbent and therefore ideal for the first few days after giving birth.

Leila I used Primark nighties in a 12/14 having been an 8/10 pre- and during pregnancy. IIRC they were about right - in fact I wore one during labour so must have been pretty capacious!

I had two maternity pads in for a day or two with disposable pants. Switched to always night pads a week or so after. I like the advice about cheap pants instead. It was also suggested that with maternity pads you could sprinkle a bit of water on them and store in freezer for extra relief! I never did as I never had any problems with my stitches. No one ever looked at my pad post birth either - they did before though.

I've just remembered that Boots (and probably other places) do slim maternity pads as well, which I think I switched to after about 2 weeks.

stegasaurus - you generally put in a new breast pad each time you feed (not always possible when you are out and about!), so I would get 2 or 3 boxes of 50 which is how many I've bought ready for DC2 arriving in a few weeks.
Remember that Boots do deliver if you shop online - so if you start running out of things and can't face a trip out then these essentials can be brought to you :)

Black Night-time Kotex - better than any maternity pads and defo no 'dry weave top sheet' style pads!

Good luck!

I bought a pack of the slim maternity pads, thinking that because I don't bleed much at all on my period, I'd not bleed much after birth.

Ha!

Sent DH out on a mission the next day to buy some proper big ones.

And don't give birth in your best nightie, it'll get stained and ruined, use the hospital stuff and let them deal with it!

I'd say if one is a size 12 in maternity wear then get a 16 in the big pants.They need to be big enough around the waist as your bump doesn't go for a while,it just gets softer.And the waist high element is the key thing,if they are too small they won't reach over the tum to the waist and instead will roll into -section scars (always good to prepare for that just in case).These are the jobbies to get www.marksandspencer.com/Pack-Pure-Cotton-Plain-Briefs/dp/B001PBH8BM?ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_1&nodeId=309699031&sr=1-1&qid=1299195100 or similar.

With my last baby someone suggested I wear men's boxer shorts instead of paper pants.

I got some cheap ones from primark and they were fantastic!
Would highly recommend them, I only wish I'd been given the tip with DC1 instead of DC3

I'll be honest, after reading MN I thought I was going to be producing more blood than a busy day at the abbatoir before I had DD.

I ended up giving away about 4 packs of maternity pads, 2 packs of night time sanitary towels and stopped bleeding - including the delightful yellow/green end of bleeding lochia after about 2 1/2 weeks.

And despite an episiotomy and 3rd degree tear, I didn't find the maternity pads any comfier than the sanitary towels, in fact, it was bloody (pardon the pun) annoying trying to get about with a sodding mattress in my pants.

I also gave away several boxes of unused breast pads as it appears not everyone leaks milk like a faulty garden sprinkler
Primark black pants were brilliant though, although I only needed one pair as day as I didn't seem to have any leaks.