Just a quick question, how long are you supposed to use maternity pads? I had Noah about 2 weeks ago and my bleeding has eased off quite a bit, and i ran out of maternity pads and used a normal sanitary pad. Feels much better as even the slim maternity pads are about a metre long but I heard that normal sanitary pads can mask signs of infection so it's best not to use them.. but how long is that true for?

Im not sure hun, I was bleeding after having Alyssa for practically 12 weeks and it was only the last 3/4 weeks that I started using normal ones again. xx

aww Shev that is a long time.. I bled for about 7 or 8 weeks with Milo and that felt like forever, it feels weird to me that it's easing off so soon, but the midwife seems to think it's ok.. Hope you're feeling better now after all the rubbish things you went through, sending you hugs!

I think I used normal pads after 2weeks, I only bled for about 3 but so prob wasnt that heavy the last week. I loved the maternity pads from the hospital, I stole loads to bring home as they were so comfy and squishy on my stitches. Must remember to nab some again lol!

Im pretty sure an infection would have showed by now but dont quote me. x

Hiya, I never heard about ordinary towels masking signs of infection tbh. I started using normal pads as soon as I felt I could trust them to do the job! Hope that helps x

I was told to only use maternity towels. You can get some super slim ones though. Mind you, I guess once you're bleeding less it doesn't matter as much

I only ever used two pack of maternity pads then one pack of night pads (thats all i bought prehand) then just used normal ones. I've never heard of normal ones masking signs of infections.. I was fine.

heya...i think i used them for a couple of weeks - i went from the huge ones to tesco's thin maternity ones which felt loads better.

i had a friend whos son must be about 3 now...she used normal sanitary towels quite early on and had a lot of stitches. she ended up with a lot of problems and some infection - what she was told by several doctors/midwives afterwards was that because of the 'gel' and the large amount of plastic (in the backing) of normal towels, they were much less breathable. they are also designed to 'draw' blood out rather than just absorb it, so in effect they were trying to draw her stitches out rather than just soak up the blood if that makes sense.

not trying to scare you! that is the reason i didn't use them really, i like the tesco ultra-thin maternity pads they felt tiny in comparison then after that went straight to liners - probably from about 3 weeks

I wore ,mine for about 1 week then

Char

Oooh that's a gory story Mari!

I was really reluctant to try the ultra slim ones when I first saw them - I just couldn't believe they could actually work after the shocking experience of having to double up whilst on the maternity ward! (No really, I was horrified - "why do I need TWO??" - I had never used pads before and had absolutely no idea about them anyway)

But actually the slim ones were surprisingly effective and I wished I'd moved on to using them sooner.

Do you have any more MW visits left NatKat? perhaps you could ask - there must be a point after which you're safe to change over. Perhaps after any stitches have dissolved away and the bleeding starts to die down anyway?

xx Em