Honour Your Flow is the work at home business for mum Vicky Sherrard, who became interested in reusable menstrual products when she was living in a yurt community ten years ago. She is now a mother to two and makes reusable pads and nursing pads and even organic cloth tampons from home.

My foray into parenthood has opened my eyes to a side of life I never knew anything about and had never even really thought about, despite owning and using a recycle bin: our impact on the environment. With the change to cloth nappies, I’ve realised that cloth pads are in my future, for sure.

Apparently, the average woman will use around 17,000 – 18,000 pads or tampons in her lifetime. Each of these, much like disposable nappies, remains in landfill until long after the woman that used it is gone.

The National Women’s Health Network, estimate that in the United States alone, over 12 billion pads and 7 billion tampons are used once and disposed of every year.

It seems only reasonable then to make that change now, with this baby’s birth, and use post partum or heavy flow menstrual pads and reusable breastfeeding pads too.

Honour Your Flow do a range of pads for women of every size and shape – the pads and the women!  They have pads for light, medium and heavy, and extremely heavy flow, and offer extras, such as make-up remover pads, wash bags and “moon purses” – for keeping your pads in.

So what’s it like using the Slim Mega Pad as a post partum pad?

Well, it’s been so long since I had a ‘real’ period that I don’t really remember how many pads I used to go through in a month, but I do remember the paper/plastic pads from my last childbirth. I hated them, because they were so big and bulky and felt like I had a toilet roll stuffed in my trousers. Sorry for the TMI.

My first thought on the Slim Mega Pad was that it is huge. I was a bit concerned about how it was going to feel wearing it as it really is very big… as it needs to be, post partum. It turns out, however, that wearing it was oddly comforting. I had a much heavier bleed after this birth than the first one, and found the absorbency and protection to be perfect, especially over night.

I only had one of this specific brand, so I wore it at night for the first few nights, and washed it during the day. I’d dry it in the tumble drier to make sure that it was dry for night time use again, and never had any issues with leaks, which I was surprised and pleased with.

If you’re thinking it’s gross, to have reusable pads, I challenge you to try them. The difference between them and disposable pads is phenomenal. They have no scent, which even the disposable scent-free pads do, they don’t rustle and they don’t bunch up.

The only improvement they could do with is additional fastenings towards the end, somehow to keep them in place as they do sometimes slip a little.

Overall, I love these, and when I need to, I’ll definitely be transitioning to just reusable menstrual pads.

We also tried a set of their brand new white bamboo fleece breast pads, which are larger in size than other brands we’ve tried. I liked that as it provides greater absorbency and coverage, which especially in the first six weeks while milk fills the breasts like a reservoir, is really good – it’s just not nice to have wet marks on your clothes! The larger size also means you have less chance of being able to see the outline of the pad against your clothes.

Absorbency wise, I can’t complain at all. I normally have to change pads at least once a day, but have gotten away with wearing these all day when I’ve had to.  They wash really well, don’t lose any shape, and don’t take ages to dry.

I’m so happy to have found cloth replacements, I’m thrilled that I’ll no longer be adding to the landfill and I think Vicky is on to a winner with Honour Your Flow.

Competition

To enter the competition to win a set of breast pads and a menstrual pad, head over to Honour Your Flow and have a browse around their website. Come back here and let me know which breast pads you like and which slim mega pad you like (in the same comment) and if your name is drawn, you’ll receive them for your prize!

For an additional entry, (which is not compulsory, and is not sponsored by Facebook and which has nothing to do with Facebook or its employees) you can like Honour Your Flow on Facebook and leave a message on their wall saying I sent you.

This competition finishes at 23:59 on 30 April and the winner will be randomly drawn. Winners will be announced here and on the Diary of a First Child Facebook Page. Please check these to find out who won. 

AND THE WINNER IS…

Please read the competition rules.

By the way, I’d be thrilled if you’d nominate Diary of a First Child for Best Pregnancy Blog, Best Baby Blog, Best Family Travel Blog or if you have a favourite post I’ve written, you can nominate it for Best Blog Post of the Year.  The top four blogs in each category will be shortlisted and if I make any of those categories, I’ll ask you to vote for me again later in the year!

You do not have to tweet or share this competition to enter, and doing so does not give you additional entries unless otherwise stated, but doing so helps ensure that I can keep bringing you competitions! You can subscribe to Diary of a First Child by RSS  or to our competitions only RSS feed or email. You can also follow us on Facebook or on Twitter. We hope to see you back again soon!

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