Lunapads

I have many reasons for praising and choosing to switch from disposable pads to Lunapads! First and foremost is my health. I was HORRIFIED when I learned about the nasty chemicals inside of disposable pads - and the fact that my poor vagina was the most absorbant part of my body. YIKES!!!

My other reason was activity and comfort. I live on a farm in Scotland where I spend a good amount of time wrestling sheep and herding cattle and all manner of physical work. Having my period has always been a problem because the disposable maxi pads are so useless! They roll up and become narrow so everything leaks. They tear apart. And they chafe in places that shouldn’t be chafed! This is not very helpful when you have several miles to walk behind a herd of cattle! Then, trying to sleep at night with a hard plastic-y sticky pad poking me here and there made my period misery from sun up to sun down!

This may sound like a strange reason but I also changed over to Lunapads because of sanitation reasons. I’ll get to that…

My last, but definately not least, reason for choosing Lunapads is the Earth. Disposable maxi pads may be small but a lot of small things add up and become very big! As a farmer I am very aware of the importance of responsible stewardship of the Earth!

I discovered Lunapads on the internet, but at first the price put me off. Then I did a bit of calculating and realized that Lunapads would pay for themselves in several ways! So I bought one pad and liner for a trial run.

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Well I just finished a full period using only cloth. Here’s some things I found out.

1. Cloth is way more absorbent than the synthetic stuff. Period. I always would leak to the sides of the disposables, even the maxi ones or superabsorbent ones. They’d be full and sort of “wet” all over, even with a dry layer. The cloth feels much drier, and even if I bleed a lot, it stays in one spot, and doesn’t start leaking off to the sides. I may sometimes have to check my layering and change a pad because without a waterproof plastic layer it is more possible to bleed through (though the wings on the underside are another extra safety layer), but I didn’t run the risk of bleeding off the sides. Cloth is just far superior to whatever the disposables are made out of as far as that goes.

2. Cloth doesn’t move around. Unlike my constantly bunched up disposables. It’s right where I left it, and when I sit down I don’t need to worry like I used to that I might not be sitting “on the pad.” Same goes for sleeping. The blood won’t slip off the back of the pad or anything. It will go into the cloth first.

3. The sweaty smell is from the plastic, not from me. I smell kind of nice actually. I guess if I put a piece of plastic tape around my armpit and walked around all day, it would probably stink too. Duh.

4. Don’t buy a whole ton at once, because it’s really fun to shop for new prints. It’s almost certain that once you buy a lot from one place, Lunapads will post a new print that you love. Once you get a whole set, you feel guilty for buying beyond what you need. It’s like getting yourself a pretty pair of panties. You want to have the excuse.

5. It’s funny how a little thing like changing your pad can change your whole attitude toward your period. I never really thought of it as a “special time” or anything. Mostly just an annoyance. But suddenly, not being in the yucky disposables (but I didn’t realize how yucky they were before) and being in touch with your body makes you feel a lot different about the whole thing.

6. I realized how much the ads for the main companies annoy me. They manipulate women, femininity, and feminism to sell stuff. It’s either, “You have to hide everything,” “It’s delicate like a pretty flower on the box…(so here, put on a diaper),” or “You’re a woman on the go, and we’ve got you covered;” they all irritate me. Yes, I am a hard working woman on the go. And I do like pretty things. But you really haven’t done anything for me except sell me stuff while patronizing things that I care about, like feminism, in order to do so!

Peace out, Sara C.
Jerusalem, Israel

The style of this piece was inspired by an amazing female friend of mine, she sometimes writes in third person to tell a story of something that happened to her. It is a different style, and one that she (and now I) feel to be therapeutic. The context was inspired by my period, so I guess you could call it period prose.

My periods have decided to go a bit wacky on me since I ditched hormonal birth control a year and a half ago. My cycles have been haywire with as little as 26 days long, to more recently, 80 days long. It is that cycle that inspired this post. After starting my period in April after not having one since January, I was ecstatic and thrilled. I suppose that this story, being told as it is, is to not just come out and say, “Hey everyone, I am bleeding, isn’t that wonderful?” because I respect that not everyone cares, frankly. But I was happy enough to want to share my feelings in an allegory, I suppose, even if it was partly fictional…to get my meaning across to those it was intended to get across to, and to fly over the heads of others that it was unimportant to. The story has sensual references, but it is not intended to be erotic in any fashion, but more to emphasize the body, and femininity, and the natural process. And everything we are.

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In general, I think most pregnant women don’t realize they have a lot of birthing choices. Almost 6 years ago, I went to my family doctor to confirm I was pregnant. After he congratulated me, he said he no longer practiced obstetrics and referred me to an obstetrician. My OB was a very kind gentle soul, but he’d “tsk tsk” me anytime I asked questions about alternative approaches to prenatal care and birthing. Back then, I was so naive that I didn’t even know what a midwife and doula did!

Fortunately for those of us in Canada, a few provincial medical plans fully cover the cost of using a midwife for prenatal, delivery and post natal care. Recently, my daily mainstream newspaper reported “Fewer and fewer family doctors are willing to live the lifestyle of obstetrics. The traditional way - where the doctor is the only one who can deliver a baby - is going to have to change. Nurses and midwives are very capable of delivering low-risk babies.”. Finally! A positive news story about the need for more birthing choices for women. If I had read this 6 years ago, I would have sought out a midwife. Fortunately, for my second birth, I had the most amazing team of midwives (pictured) who completely supported me in my desire to have a beautiful home birth.

While most women give birth in hospitals, at the opposite end of the birth spectrum is the practice of ‘unassisted childbirth’ or ‘freebirth’. Here is a link to a recent story about it. “Freebirthing” is the practice of giving birth at home, without the help of obstetricians, nurses or even midwives or doulas. Those who promote unattended delivery, called “freebirth,” say the practice offers mothers-to-be a natural way of welcoming their child into the world, free from drugs, machinery and medical intervention. Needless to say, the negative, scary tone of this story got me and my crunchy mama friends really riled up!

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Our upcoming move (to a new office of our very own!) has us all feeling a bit nostalgic at Lunapads these days. We are in the process of creating a herstorical photo gallery on the site, and in the meantime will share a few bits and pieces here in the blog as we go through this transition and reflect on our journey thus far. This photo of Suzanne and I was taken in July of 2000 - 7 years ago, incredible! I love how proud and excited we look (we were!), so full of Maidenly energy - I don’t know why, but it seems strange to remember ourselves without our kids! We have grown, learned and changed so much since then, and yet our goals and feelings for the company and one another are practically identical.

Seven years ago we were regulars at Natural Products Expo trade shows, working hard to break into the US Health Food retail business. We failed that time around, but fortunately for us the advent of internet shopping (plus finding the right web designers) saved our bacon and we have never looked back. It’s amazing how often life’s disasters can provide the most learning or steer you in a better direction than the one you were taking. So it was for us, and we’re so grateful.

As with life in general, one of the greatest pleasures (and secrets of our success!) of working at Lunapads is the people. Thank you so much to all the women who have helped to build and champion Lunapads: Kathleen, Lan, Mai, Amy 1, Amy 2, Andrea, Judy, Tam, Bronwyn, Deanna, Cath, Signy, Kristin, Frances, Carolyn, Sian, Yuni, Bonne, Sabrina, Susanna, Krisztina, Sharmeen, inga, Heather, Emira, Lauren and of course our current indispensable team of Sandra, Marie-Genevieve, Goni and Lisa.

One evening, a few weeks ago, I found myself having a chat with a friend about her Lunapads. She’s a relatively new convert and was wanting to share advice and tips on soaking, laundering and packing her Lunapads on the go during her cycle. Being a Lunapads veteran of nearly a decade now, I had some tips and hints for her, things like use an old yogurt pot with a lid in the cabinet under the sink for soaking your pads out of site of bathroom visitors. In our conversation, she mentioned that she would really love a bag for carrying her pads around during her work day etc. that had a compartment for used pads and one for fresh ones. Personally, I just use two nylon pouches (one for clean, one for used) but I could see her point. Then, lo and behold, along comes the Moon Pad Bag, a bag originally designed for use with cloth diapers, which functions exactly as my girlfriend had described.

I know we sent out an update about the new bags in a newsletter, but in case not everyone is signed up for that and you don’t often visit the Comfort section on the site (a fabulous section by the way, filled with handy things like mesh laundry bags and yummy treats like organic chocolate) I thought I’d bring it up here. It does seem like the perfect carrying case for taking your Lunapads out of the house, and the awesome fabric options make getting one an extra treat.

- Webmistress

The New Yorker has a piece on their site right now called “Greener Postures: Hacking through the biodegradable, zero-carbon, ecochic overhype” which has my panties in a bit of a twist. I respect what they’re trying to do with the piece, namely: to analyze whether or not many “green” items on the current consumer market are actually helping the larger environmental cause. Take for example something like the Body Squeege (details here), which is a product intended to be used to remove water from your body after your bath/shower so that you use less of your towel, thereby reducing the amount of laundry you need to do. I tend to agree with the authors of the piece whose verdict on the product is: “The proliferation of absurdly specialized and redundant tools is not our idea of green.” Fair enough.

In their review of 12 products they also included washable menstrual pads (review here). They start by claiming that the garbage and waste impact of disposables isn’t that bad in the greater scheme of garbage. Fair enough perhaps, but if we though that way about everything then how do we hope to ever make an impact. Really, it was their final verdict that got me “A personal matter. But the cup thing kind of makes sense if you can get over the gross-out factor.” Yes, your menstrual products are a matter of personal taste, so too I would argue is a body squegee or choosing to buy soy fabrics (another product reviewed), but those items don’t get the “personal matter” treatment. Then comes the mention of the “gross-out factor” which is in my opinion just plain stupid and a perilously individualistic approach to the matter. The message really is: it’s ok to get away with not examining your use of disposable products in this case because, well “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” we all know this one is kind of gross. And I think it’s time we put those ideas to rest. I don’t expect everyone to become comfortable with using alternative menstrual products by any means, but I do expect those who care about the environment or their bodies to spend a bit of time actually looking at the issue and deciding how they feel about it before just writing it off as “too gross.” I know the piece is meant to be funny, but I guess after many years of working in this field I’m so used to seeing this kind of “humour” about women’s cycles and our bodies accepted as the norm.

This entry was submitted by a dear friend and former Lunapads (then everyware designs) co-worker, Amy M.

Since I haven’t had a regular flow in nearly 20 months (!), I forgot my Lunapads were in the back of this drawer. My son Pelle found them this afternoon and had a great time flinging them about and rubbing his cheeks on the soft fabrics (some of these are — holy smokes — 11 years old!?). He was especially keen on the bright red post-partum set (my faves too…I’d consider giving birth again JUST so I could wear them. After Pelle’s birth, my husband Brian washed pads non stop for me and always folded and stacked them nicely on the back of the toilet so they were always at hand…just about the most endearing gesture of our entire marriage). Anyway, seeing these spread around today was like bumping into all my old friends again — and there they were with my new little buddy. I’m looking forward to flowing again, but at the same time, with the amount of baby chasing and diaper washing I’m doing these days it’s nice to have one less thing to think about!
Much love, Amy

This a story sent to us from Danielle - thanks for sharing!

“Just thought I’d share a smile with you. My 4 year old son was looking at my supply of Lunapads and picked up one of my Luna Liners. In his most serious voice he turned to me and asked if when I was finished using it if he could have a turn with it. I was very curious to find out what he wanted to do with a Luna Liner so asked what he needed it for. Anyhow, he thought it would make a very good carpet for his Playmobil house, or if not a carpet then it would make a good place for them to sleep, as they don’t all have beds, and it’s very soft. There are probably other mothers who use Lunapads who’ve had some interesting conversations with their children about them as well.”

Danielle goes on further to say “that’s one benefit of switching to Lunapads that I never expected: - the fact that I don’t “hide” them away has caused my children to ask lots of questions about what they’re for, and why I’m the only one who can put things in a particular pail etc, and really allowed us to talk about menstruation as a normal/ natural part of life.”

Well, I certainly would never have thought of using my Liner that way Please share with us your stories of how Lunapads fit into your family lifestyle or discussions. We’d love to hear about it!

Check out the latest review of Lunapads in “The Opinionated Parent”. Contributing writer Reesh talks about how she seamlessly incorporated Lunapads into her monthly routine while on the road travelling for theatre. Her story also goes to show the power of word of mouth and the impact of leading by example. Thanks Reesh, and all the best with your pregnancy!

The Opinionated Parent is also having a contest for a Lunapads Intro Kit. I’m sure all you gals reading this will have no trouble answering the question below. If you win, and already own a stash of Lunapads, pass your winnings on to a friend, and keep spreading the good word!

Want to win a Lunapads intro kit to try them yourself? Email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with LUNAPADS in the subject line and the correct answer to the question “What are the names of the Lunapads’ owners’ 3 children?” Contest closes Friday 6/8/07 at midnight MST.