Reasonably Good Price for a Reasonably Good Performance (Boots Maternity Pads)

Member Name: krazykat2005

Product:	Boots Maternity Pads
Date:	14/01/06 (1689 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Low price, very absorbent, comfortable

Disadvantages: See review

You cannot have missed the fact that I have recently given birth as I don’t shut up about it. Lets face it, pregnancy is awkward, labour hurts and looking after a newborn baby is hard work, so I think women earn the right to have a bit of a moan about it all. Plus I’m a Virgo and we like to complain!

One of the inconvenient parts of being a woman who has recently given birth is that you tend to bleed for quite some time afterwards. The professional term for this is ‘lochia’ and it is basically the uterus discharging leftover blood, mucus and placental tissue. The trouble is that this discharge can last up to six weeks after the birth and using everyday sanitary towels is not advisable because they are not shaped to deal with the level of blood loss. Tampons are off limits as well as they can introduce bacteria into the womb and cause an infection.

Having babies is an expensive business, so I had to find some maternity pads that were good value for money. I couldn’t find any in the usual discount places or at the supermarket, so I popped into Boots on the off chance that they might have some that didn’t cost the earth.

I was quite pleasantly surprised when I found some that were reasonably priced. What also made them appeal to me was that they came in two sizes, regular and ultra thin, which meant that I had the option of changing to a thinner, more comfortable pad for when the blood flow lessened (because lets face it ladies, thick sanitary/maternity towels feel like wearing a nappy).

-- PRICE --

These aren’t going to break the bank – the regular towels cost £1.39 per twelve pack and the ultra thin towels come in at £1.99 per twelve pack. Comparing this to Mothercare’s prices for what is basically the same product – £1.50 for the regular size and £2.00 for the ultra thin – I have saved myself at the very least a couple of pounds over the past couple of weeks.

-- PACKAGING --

The packaging for both types is a very simple white background with blue writing giving the product name and some very basic information and a blue picture of a heavily pregnant woman’s stomach (I’m jealous as she looks much better than I did at that point). Though the design is simple, it is distinctive enough to find on the shelf.

The pack of regular towels is quite bulky and is essentially a plastic bag that has a perforated bit at the top to make it easy to open and a drawstring to re-close it after opening. This drawstring is useful as each towel is not separately wrapped – a bit of a negative point for me as it meant that I had to take the full twelve pack with me wherever I went so that the towels were kept clean.

I preferred the ultra thin towels as they are separately wrapped – much more convenient! They also come in similar plastic packaging, except that there is no drawstring or perforations which means the outer packaging can rip a bit too much when you open it, leaving you with twelve towels and nowhere to keep them.

--PRODUCT DESCRIPTION --

The regular towels are longer than everyday sanitary towels and are about half an inch thick. They have an adhesive strip down the back that is covered with a strip of waxy paper, which you have to remove to attach the towel to your underwear.

The ultra thin towels come individually wrapped in a simple white plastic wrapper. They are also longer everyday sanitary towels and (funnily enough) are ultra thin! LOL! When you remover the outer wrapper, the adhesive strip along the back is exposed allowing you to attach the towel to your underwear. The ultra thin towels also have wings.

--WHAT I THOUGHT --

I found that with the regular towels I was very aware that I was wearing them to start with as they were so thick and long. However, once I had been using them for a couple of days I got used to them and I wouldn’t have said that they were uncomfortable at any time. They were definitely absorbent enough, though I did have to use two at once immediately after the birth – after speaking to my midwife I found that they advise you to do this with all maternity towels due to the blood loss being so heavy straight afterwards.

The negative points I did have were that sometimes the backing wasn’t sticky enough to hold the pad in place and I did find that they occasionally ‘leaked’ onto my underwear due to not being quite wide enough. All in all, they did the job they were made for most of the time.

I was glad when I switched to using the ultra thin towels as I did prefer them to the regular towels. I think this was due to the fact that they had wings to attach them to my underwear, making them much more comfortable and also less likely to slip or leak. The difference in thickness (to the regular towels) also meant that most of the time I forgot that I was even wearing them.

The only negative point I had was that I found that very occasionally when I was removing the wrapper (on an individual towel) it would be attached to the towel inside. This meant that even when I tried to carefully separate them, the towel would rip and be unusable.

Finally, I found that I had to buy quite a few packs of both regular and ultra thin towels due to the fact that they only came in packs of twelve. This isn’t a problem if you buy a load in advance, but for those of us who aren’t very organised it can mean having to rush out to the shops after only a couple of days to get more.

-- CONCLUSION --

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for with Boots Maternity Towels. I would advise that you get some cheap/disposable underwear to wear so that you do not ruin your ‘nice pants’ if there are any leaks.

Boots Regular Maternity Towels – 3 out of 5

-- Good Points --
- Outer packaging perforated for easy opening
- Very absorbent
- Low price

-- Bad Points --
- Can be inconvenient as not individually wrapped
- Sometimes slipped due to some not being sticky enough
- Leaked occasionally
- Only come in packs of twelve

Boots Ultra Thin Maternity Towels – 4 out of 5

-- Good Points --
- Individually wrapped
- Very comfortable
- Had wings so much less likely to slip
- Low price

-- Bad Points --
- Towels occasionally rip when removing from packaging
- Only come in packs of twelve

(Please remember that if you need to change a regular pad more than once an hour that you need to contact your midwife/health visitor/doctor as you may be haemorrhaging)

Summary: I would recommend them!