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Tesco Disposable Maternity Briefs
by NUDUL
Like every new expectant mum, I wanted to be organised, for the baby, at home and in the hospital. In the hospital also meant I had to be organised for myself. I lost count of how many check lists and things I printed off to help me pack it, then again, I lost count of how many times I unpacked and repacked it too. I think it was a ... nervous thing.
As everyone knows labour and birth is a messy thing, but we are happy to put up with the messy bits for the beautiful baby that arrives at the end. That means going through waters breaking, the yucky stuff that comes with labour and then the blood that comes afterwards. It's enough to get anyone thinking about turning back the clocks to stop it all happening in the first place.
The thing with labour is it is like weddings, christenings, engagements and special birthdays - people jump on the band wagon and design specific products (or rename products that are already available) and stick a huge price tag on them. We're mostly gullible enough to pay for them and these maternity/labour knickers from Tesco's are no different.
All the websites I read up on told me that I needed to pack disposable briefs for the labour and couple of days after birth so I went on the hunt for some. Most stores sell their own branded versions of them, but when I looked the Tesco's ones seemed the best. So I purchased two packs - better be safe than sorry I thought. They cost £1.50 for a pack of five which seems reasonable and I bought my pregnant size rather than my normal size as you do. They range in size from 10-12 (UK) to 18-20 (UK). I packed them away and forgot about them, until I came to need them in hospital.
The knickers are completely disposable (though the normal sanitary means - not down your loo) and are made from a paper-type material that can be quite uncomfortable to wear. Even buying the bigger size didn't stop these from cutting into my legs at the top or under my bump. They were very quick to spoil but the good thing about them is that they are disposable so you just throw the pair you are wearing away and swap for a new pair. You are able to wear a pad with them as they are shaped 'like big knickers' as my husband says so there is plenty of room and support in them.
The knickers are plain white and come in a small pack that looks like a pack of sanitary towels - it is grey/silver in colour with pink detailing and writing on. Once opened you will find all five pairs of knickers individually rolled up and sealed in their own little packs. They are by no means glamorous or even comfy but they do their job reasonably well and are fit for purpose. However, that said, if I do it again I will just take a few pairs of old knickers that I don't mind throwing away and buy myself some nice new ones afterwards. I would recommend other expectant mums do the same.
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Palmers Cocoa Butter Formula Stretch Mark
by scooch12
When I was pregnant, I ended up with stretch marks - they weren't just limited to my expanding tummy, I also had a few on my legs too. In one of the free bounty pregnancy/new mum packs (I don't remember which one) was a sample bottle of Palmers cocoa butter formula lotion, specifically designed for stretch marks. I'd used other types of ... Palmers creams before and had always had a good experience with them when I remembered to use them!
The bottle I had was a 50ml sample and I obviously got it for nothing, but the cream retails in Boots at £5.39 for a 250ml bottle. There are many items in the Palmers cocoa butter range although unfortunately this one isn't designed with my skin type in mind. The cream states that it contains vitamin E, collagen, elastin and shea butter to help improve the appearance of stretch marks and is designed for use all over the body. The bottle I have is a screw top bottle but I think the full sized bottles usually come with a flip lid or sometimes a pump. The bottles are white so it's impossible to see where you're up to with it.
The scent of the cream is the first thing that I wasn't drawn to - it's a similar scent as you get with E45 cream if you've ever used that, although I would probably say this one is worse. To me it's not a very pleasant smell. It's by no means disgusting, don't get me wrong, but to me it just smells a bit too clinical and reminds me of an antiseptic smell you'd get in a hospital - it's really off putting before using it and it automatically set me off on the wrong foot with the product as it's the first thing I noticed. The worst thing about the scent is that it lingers once applied - this is usually something I want but with this cream, I think it would be better if the scent disappeared fast! It was a surprise as their other products have always smelled so lovely before!
The cream itself is white in colour and a small dollop from my bottle was enough to cover quite a large area so my sample bottle lasted me around 4 weeks. It rubs in fairly quickly and doesn't feel sticky on the skin, although I remember it did feel quite oily when first applied until it had soaked in completely. I only started to use it a while after having my daughter (stretch marks were the last thing on my mind when I had to give birth and then have sleepless nights!). I assume as with a lot of things, prevention is better than cure, but I found that the cream did lighten my marks even using it a few months after they started to first appear. They are still visible but they have faded and are definitely not as red as they were. Whether this can be put down to this cream entirely I don't know -the stretch marks may have faded with time anyway but I assume it gave them a helping hand.
Readers of my other reviews may remember that I have sensitive skin - this cream didn't do it any favours. The bottle did state to test it on a small area before use and to be fair, I did try it out on my hand first, not because of their advice, more because I wanted to see how well it rubbed in before applying on a bigger area but I never noticed any sort of issue with it then. I used it for a few days quite often (at least three times per day) and then noticed a small rash in the places that it had been applied over that period. It wasn't itchy as such, but felt annoying on my skin and my skin felt like it was tingling a lot. It settled after 10 minutes or so and after this I stopped using it so much, I dropped to using it just once per day and didn't notice this problem happen again. For this reason, I wouldn't really recommend this cream for use on people with very fair and sensitive skin incase of a similar reaction to mine or if they did use it I would definitely suggest the skin test they advise and only very limited use at first until they know whether it suits their skin type or not. Like I say, I have used other products in the Palmers range before now and I've never had a reaction to any of their other products but there must have been something in this one that didn't quite agree with my skin type unless I just overused it. There are no specific directions on the bottle to say how often to use it though.
I would perhaps recommend this cream for stretchmarks cautiously - mine have faded and I feel that this cream helped a little but I think they would have faded with time anyway, maybe just not so much as they have done. The cream isn't great for sensitive skin either - it's definitely not a cream that I'll be parting money for, the only reason I carried on using it was because it was a freebie. I rate it 2 stars overall unfortunately - I think it's quite pricey, the smell really put me off using it and it didn't agree with my skin type although my marks did look slightly better afterwards.
Thanks for reading :o)
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