Becoming Domestic

[This post is for the girls...Blokes - look away now as not much here in this post for you other than persuading your women to use these two fabulous new products]

The Mooncup Menstrual Cup – An Innovative Alternative to Tampons

I can’t remember how I discovered the Mooncup I think it was reading a post on the ever-wonderful www.mumsnet.com/Talk/ forum. An environmentally friendly way of dealing with monthly menstrual periods which happy users were saying were better (cleaner, needing to be changed less frequently and more comfortable to wear) than any of the disposable sanitary protection products on the market? It sounded too good to be true so I read up on the manufacturer’s website and very shortly afterwards bought one (for about £15 I think).

The claims were absolutely spot on. One small silicon egg-cup shaped product is used in place of a tampon and collects the fluid. The fluid is then tipped away down the toilet and the Mooncup resinserted. It can be washed in water and between periods it has its own discreet little unbleached cotton bag with pretty pink ribbon to store in. No more shelves of bulky sanitary protection or being bamboozled by the bewildering array of choice in the ‘feminine hygiene’ aisle at the supermarket. No more spending good money on disposables products which clog up landfill every month of your reproductive years (how much does that add up to?!)

It holds more than an tampon so needs to be changed/dealt with less frequently, it is made from hygenic soft supple silicon and so one is less aware of it than other products.

I listened to a good debate on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour yesterday about how ridiculous it was that was too much choice of products to buy for this bodily function each month. Apparently there are even scented products available now, tampons with ’skirts’, panty liners for g-string wearers and panty liners for days when you haven’t even got your period (surely that’s what pants & their gussets are for…). According to the person who wished more people would become aware of the Mooncup and similar products female society have become disengaged with their bodies and many may be uncomfortable trying a product like a Mooncup as it requires the user to put it in place. But surely there are many women out there who are not at all fearful of their own bodies, don’t like throwing away money and used disposable products and would be more than happy to have a personal product for life?

LilyPadz® – Reusable non-absorbent breast pads for nursing mums (LilyPadz® Putting The Glamour into Breast Feeding and Taking the Frumpiness out!)

I’ve been breastfeeding our new baby for the 38 days she has lived outside of me and thankfully we both love it . I know some new mothers and babes have trouble with feeding and despite there being a lot of pressure from health professionals to breastfeed it is something many women give up on or don’t attempt at all.

One thing I remembered from breastfeeding my other children was that it was a hugely messy business with duvet covers, pyjamas and baby saturated in milk by the morning due to milky leakings/pourings.

Having become environmentally aware since I last breastfed I bought myself a pack of 4 washable breast pads which I hoped to use instead of disposable breast pads (filled with the same kind of gel crystals found in disposable nappies). They were all sodden within the first few hours of the day, got lost in the wash and curled up into awful scrumpled-tissue shaped things after drying. I reached into the box of pricey disposable pads I’d been given by a kind friend who no longer used them and was relived that they were far more absorbant but often got scrumpled up in my bra and looked awfully lumpy under t-shirts. Was there nothing available for a breastfeeding woman trying desperately to feel ‘normal’ again after the birth of her baby and not constantly sporting circular wet patches on the front of her tops!?

Thankfully I chanced across mention of LilyPadz (again on the blessed, life-saving Mumsnet forum) which sounded amazing as they claimed to stop the flow of spare milk from the unutilised bosom whilst yet being sleek, hygenic, comfortable and almost invisible under clothes. Obviously I bought a pair immediately and have been delighted since they arrived last week as they do indeed stop leakage and so there is nothing to keep dry. The pads work by placing gentle pressure on the nipple stopping the let down of milk and preventing the leak. The most amazing thing is you can wear them without a bra so even in bed they are in place and hooray – no more daily washing of bed linen on top of looking after the new baby and the house!

Like the Mooncup they are made from flexible silicone. They are very thin and lightweight. One does not feel them at all once they are in place and the marketing from the LilyPadz website tells us that as they just need a quick wash in water each day and ry so quickly they are even better than being ‘reusable’ products as they are ‘constantly usable’.

Posted on March 2nd, 2008 under Baby and Pregnancy, Being Green, Family Health, Womens Issues • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback