Beating the Incontinence Stigma: The Best Postpartum Pads and Pants 2024

by team March 18, 2024

A lot of mums feel embarrassed about the changes in their bodies after giving birth, but they shouldn’t.

1 in 3 women experience urinary incontinence, and studies show that 10% of mums suffer with bowel incontinence after giving birth. Embarrassment has led those suffering with incontinence to not report their symptoms. The National Childbirth Trust reports that 38% of mums who suffer with incontinence admit they were reluctant to speak to their GP at first about the symptoms associated with it.

Incontinence and the shame around it is so common among both new (and experienced) mums that the MASIC Foundation have gathered stories from those suffering with it. Many women share how they feel“ unclean, degraded, unhappy and isolated” when suffering with their symptoms, and Luce Brett (author of PMSL) shared how mums shouldn’t hide away when it comes to expressing how they feel.

But, just because it’s not often spoken about does not mean it doesn’t happen!

So, why does it happen?

It makes sense that urinary incontinence and/or bowel incontinence symptoms arise due to the toll of childbirth and pregnancy on the body. Your pelvic floor muscles (which support your bladder, uterus, and rectum) can become weakened during pregnancy due to the weight of your growing baby, and during delivery as your baby passes through the birth canal.

Due to the stress on your pelvic floor muscles before and after birth, the pressure on your bladder may lead to it leaking without your intention – e.g. when laughing, coughing, or moving suddenly such as during exercise. It is possible to experience a greater urgency to wee, or a mixture of both stress and urgency on the bladder.

Bowel incontinence is common because during the process of labour, pushing can harm the muscles that open and close your bowels. Signs that you may be experiencing bowel incontinence include: finding it difficult to hold in poo when you need to go, passing wind without intention, or you may be noticing stains in your underwear as a result of either factors.

The Mumie app contains loads of resources around incontinence of the bladder and bowels, plus lots of other taboo topics like prolapse and even the best way to poo for your pelvic floor. Sign up using the link here.

There are ways to alleviate both the pains and discomfort of incontinence during your postnatal period and beyond.

To start you off, we’ve done the homework for you and have put together a variety of incontinence pads and pants available across a range of needs:

For those with heavy flows:

Abena premium | Single-use | £4.99 for 15 on Amazon

Budget:

Boots Ultra Slim Maternity Towels 12s | Single-use | Winged | £1.55 at Boots

Best for night-time

Always Discreet Incontinence Pads Plus Woman Ultimate Night X 12 | Single-use | Not winged | £4.89 (Boots)

Budget:

Boots Everyday Maxi-Towels Night 10s | Single-use | Not winged | £0.90 from Boots

For those who have sensitive skin:

TENA Lights Sensitive Ultra Pads (16 pack) | Single-use | Not winged | £2.99 Superdrug (on offer £2.50 as of 18/3/24) or £34.99 for 8 packs of 16 on Amazon

Best discreet

TENA Discreet Extra Incontinence Pads for Bladder Weakness 10pk | Single-use | Not winged | £2.55 Boots (26p per pad) or £14.40 for 72pc multipack at Amazon

Budget:

Always Discreet Sensitive Bladder Pads Plus Women Long x20 | Single Use | Not Winged | £4.89 for 20 (24p per pad) at Boots

Best long-term/reusable

Best for bowel incontinence

Staydry Extra Plus Pads | 10pk | Single Use | Boots £2.29

Managing your symptoms

If you are suffering from incontinence, the NHS recommends starting with exercising your pelvic floor muscles. There are a range of resources online to help you with pelvic floor exercises, with full instruction provided in the Mumie app, videos on Youtube, and specialist apps such as NHS recommended ‘Squeezy’.

Sometimes lifestyle changes are recommended to alleviate symptoms, such as diet changes, and reducing alcohol and caffeine where appropriate.

Don’t forget to contact your GP

It is typical to experience incontinence within the first few weeks after birth, but some women experience certain symptoms for longer. Incontinence is unfortunately common after having a baby, but should never be accepted as “normal.” Be sure to check in with your GP if you have concerns about ongoing, worsening or unusual accompanying symptoms. It’s important to remember that incontinence is a treatable condition in most cases.

Tayla Halfacre is a Writer, Director and Editor. Her work often centres gender, sexuality, and social impact. She has published poetry in Cobra Milk and has poetry forthcoming with Carrion Press. In 2022 she was selected to be part of the Writer’s Lab with BFI Network X Northampton Film Festival, and selected to develop her play ‘Lesbian Line’ based on the community support landline by The Masque Theatre and Playhouse Theatre. She is interested in reducing stigmas and raising awareness around women’s health.

Further Reading

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Updated: 18th May 2023 This privacy policy explains how Mumie ("we" or "us") collects, uses, and shares information about you when you access or use our website or web application ("App")  collectively our "Services".  Mumie is committed to complying with data protection and privacy law. We take your privacy seriously and are committed to protecting your personal information. Please read this policy carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data.

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Mumie is intended to be used by women who have recently given birth. It is not intended to be used by children.

How We Use Your Information

We may use the information we collect for the following purposes:
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We will store this information within our App so that you can have access to it for as long as you are our registered user. We may also use it for statistical and research purposes, but only in an aggregated and anonymised format (i.e., in a format that does not allow us to identify who this information relates to). The information you provide will be processed on one or more of the following lawful bases:
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We may share your information with other parties with your consent. Your information will not be transferred out of the UK.

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We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered, or disclosed. Your data will be stored on a secure web server, with the app hosted on a trusted host provider with regular security update enhancements. Your personal data can only be accessed by those within Mumie who have a genuine need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instruction, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so. While we will use all reasonable efforts to safeguard your personal data, you acknowledge that the use of the internet is not entirely secure and for this reason, we cannot guarantee the security or integrity of any personal data that are transferred via the internet. We can not be held responsible for unauthorised access or use of your information that is beyond our control.

Data retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you. Typically, we will not keep your personal data for longer than 5 years after you have closed your account on our App or stopped using it, after which point personal data will be destroyed. We may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Your Rights

You have the right to access and control your personal information, including the right to be informed about what data we hold, the right to access this data, the right to rectify inaccurate data, the right to erase your data, the right to restrict or object to your information being used, and the right to move your data to another business. If you have any questions about your rights or would like to exercise your rights, please contact us using the information provided at the end of this policy. When signing up to our app you will be asked to provide your consent to share your information. You have the right to withdraw this consent at any time and may do so by contacting us. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (ico.org.uk) We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time.  If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of the policy and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our website homepage or sending you a notification). We encourage you to review the Privacy Policy whenever you access the Services or otherwise interact with us to stay informed about our information practices and the choices available to you. Your continued use of our services after the effective date of the updated policy will constitute your acceptance of the revised policy.

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