Too poor to buy sanitary towels

eviltwin

Graces7 wrote: »

Originally Posted by Candie View Post
I don't think rags should be considered an option in 2017. It's hard enough for small children to come to terms with bleeding and pain every few weeks, without expecting them to cope with bloody, unhygenic rags too.

There was I assure you nothing unhygienic. But then we used real nappies too. Washed those too...

Sometimes it seems modern folk are just too.. squeamish.

Small children?

Rags by the way = useful sized old towelling or cloth, not ragged!

Still not practical for a lot of young women. There are reusable sanitary towels you can buy online that are aimed at those who want to be environmentally friendly but they require a lot of maintenance. It would be very difficult for a young girl to clean something like that properly. And why should a girl be forced to use a bit of old towel when there are other more practical alternatives available.

Noddyholder

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

People should be allowed rip off the welfare system because "they would turn to crime"?

Fcuk em, let em starve.

Good auld Kermit, Its a pity you were not around back in the 1920/50,s when you could just throw all the unwanted into sewer pits, sure they deserved it the ****ers,

I would love to feed frogs to my pigs.

FTA69

Graces7 wrote: »

Originally Posted by Candie View Post
I don't think rags should be considered an option in 2017. It's hard enough for small children to come to terms with bleeding and pain every few weeks, without expecting them to cope with bloody, unhygenic rags too.

There was I assure you nothing unhygienic. But then we used real nappies too. Washed those too...

Sometimes it seems modern folk are just too.. squeamish.

Small children?

Rags by the way = useful sized old towelling or cloth, not ragged!

Sorry I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest you're wrong. Using old rags and towels as sanitary towels is certainly more unhygienic and as Candie has pointed out, dramatically increases the risk of potentially dangerous complications. I would also wager that plenty of women back in 1960s Ireland and before suffered from these (as well as general discomfort) but it being the country it was that it wasn't at all spoken about. As for small children, some girls are starting at age 9-10; that's definitely what I'd consider a young child.

There's nothing prissy or squeamish about wanting a decent sanitary towel.

nosilver

FizzleSticks wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

But think of it - lets say single mother + 2 kids.

Weekly social welfare inc children's allowances = about £110.

Costs

Food
Council tax
Water
Electricity
Fuel

Benefits are paid every 2 weeks - so towards the end of the 2 weeks you would be scraping to find £1.

A previous GF worked in social services in UK and the things she experienced at the coalface in a part of essex was horrendous. It was 15 years ago, but if anything its got worse since then.

As I said previously, the UK is not a place you want to be long term unemployed. It's a life not worth living.

Yes, its generous here, but not overly so and at least people can still keep their respect.

Autonomous Cowherd

FTA69 wrote: »

Sorry I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest you're wrong. Using old rags and towels as sanitary towels is certainly more unhygienic and as Candie has pointed out, dramatically increases the risk of potentially dangerous complications. I would also wager that plenty of women back in 1960s Ireland and before suffered from these (as well as general discomfort) but it being the country it was that it wasn't at all spoken about. As for small children, some girls are starting at age 9-10; that's definitely what I'd consider a young child.

There's nothing prissy or squeamish about wanting a decent sanitary towel.

Reusable ''moon pads'' of various design if properly maintained are hygienic and variations of same have been used since the dawn of the species. In fact the bleach used in pads and tampons can be far more irritating than cloth. And for some substantially so. Not saying it is for everyone, but it is a viable and hygienic option


Edit...whoops sorry about the monster pic

Conor Bourke

spurious wrote: »

It's not just pain, though i suspect I might really scare you with some clot tales I could tell.

Combine clot tales and period-related bowel issues and you've got a horror show that would make many guys faint.

Just to weigh in with my two cents on the rags vs disposable debate, how do the rags work to prevent leakage? I don't think I could trust them considering I've had periods so heavy that I've leaked through a maximum absorbency tampon AND pad within a few hours and that was just while lying relatively still in bed. How would any woman be supposed to carry out any of their regular daily activities while wearing a reusable pad. It's already been asked but how could girls bring them to school, rinse them while there and bring them home again? How would you play sports or socialise or work while wearing one? My work involves home visiting, I balk at asking to use bathrooms in houses as it is, never mind change sanitary wear there and when I was still suffering obscenely heavy periods I was constantly terrified of leaking while sitting on someone's (inevitably cream) couch. In my opinion, restricting access to disposable sanitary wear is a very effective way of restricting any women's capabilities.

whoopsadoodles

Cornelius Crow wrote: »

Combine clot tales and period-related bowel issues and you've got a horror show that would make many guys faint.

I know someone whose endometriosis is so bad that her uterus attached to her bowel. The only way to fix it, is to remove part of her bowel and give her a colostomy bag for 6 months. Then more surgery to "join up" I suppose, her bowel. But the second surgery is so risky that her consultant has recommended heavily against doing it.

So she has to stay home for the duration of her period, and they are more regular than monthly

Autonomous Cowherd

Cornelius Crow wrote: »

Combine clot tales and period-related bowel issues and you've got a horror show that would make many guys faint.

Just to weigh in with my two cents on the rags vs disposable debate, how do the rags work to prevent leakage? I don't think I could trust them considering I've had periods so heavy that I've leaked through a maximum absorbency tampon AND pad within a few hours and that was just while lying relatively still in bed. How would any woman be supposed to carry out any of their regular daily activities while wearing a reusable pad. It's already been asked but how could girls bring them to school, rinse them while there and bring them home again? How would you play sports or socialise or work while wearing one? My work involves home visiting, I balk at asking to use bathrooms in houses as it is, never mind change sanitary wear there and when I was still suffering obscenely heavy periods I was constantly terrified of leaking while sitting on someone's (inevitably cream) couch. In my opinion, restricting access to disposable sanitary wear is a very effective way of restricting any women's capabilities.

They have a non-permeable layer just like disposable pads do. They are not suitable for everyone. I commiserate and can identify with your ''cream couch conundrums''

Fratton Fred

steddyeddy wrote: »

I think dole in the UK is 60 pounds a week. How can there not be poverty.

it is a completely different system.

Jobseekers is £73 per week, but then you will get childrens allowance, child tax credits, housing allowance etc.

if you use the calculator on entitledto.co.uk a single parent with two teenagers, paying £150 per week in rent, will get around £385 per week.

Conor Bourke

Autonomous Cowherd wrote: »

They have a non-permeable layer just like disposable pads do. They are not suitable for everyone. I commiserate and can identify with your ''cream couch conundrums''

I presume you mean cloth pads that you buy but graces7 is proposing just hacking up a few old towels... how does that work? I am having images of those crunchy plastic pants that you used to have to pull up over terry nappies on babies :eek:
I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm genuinely curious as to how a teenager in school for example would freshen up at school while using those reusable cloth pads that you're talking about? How do you clean them in school and bring them home again in a hygienic way?

Autonomous Cowherd

Cornelius Crow wrote: »

I presume you mean cloth pads that you buy but graces7 is proposing just hacking up a few old towels... how does that work? I am having images of those crunchy plastic pants that you used to have to pull up over terry nappies on babies :eek:
I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm genuinely curious as to how a teenager in school for example would freshen up at school while using those reusable cloth pads that you're talking about? How do you clean them in school and bring them home again in a hygienic way?

Gosh, sorry to have caused confusion, I always thought they were fairly understandable and ..well..normal-ish. At least they are not packed with moss or other absorbent fibres from nature such as women might have used for millennia. Not that I have anything against moss packed sanitary devices, to be clear One would have several, a whole range of reusable towels, perhaps as many as would suffice for an entire menstrual cycle. One would also have non-permeable pouches for the carrying home of used towels. Really, it's pretty straightforward. No horror stories of young girls at school collapsed in pools of seeping blood...
(Those kind of stories would be for the women in my clan, a line of ferocious and spectacular bleeders, whose stories are pure Hammer House)

timthumbni

Stories like this sound horrendous but I really doubt they are that common. And if they are I would like to hear how much of this problem is caused by gross mismanagement of available benefits etc.

You are always going to have kids suffer in households where their parents are more interested in buying alcohol and cigs than necessities. This applies to working families too though obviously the problem is highlighted more with those on benefits.

My experience of those on benefits (in Northern Ireland) is certainly not on the whole that they couldn't afford sanitary pads for their kids. Though no doubt these sorts of stories will appear in the next ken loach movie. (No doubt the pack of pads will be be literally ripped out of their hand by M Thatcher is his movie.lol)

Conor Bourke

Autonomous Cowherd wrote: »

Gosh, sorry to have caused confusion, I always thought they were fairly understandable and ..well..normal-ish. At least they are not packed with moss or other absorbent fibres from nature such as women might have used for millennia. Not that I have anything against moss packed sanitary devices, to be clear One would have several, a whole range of reusable towels, perhaps as many as would suffice for an entire menstrual cycle. One would also have non-permeable pouches for the carrying home of used towels. Really, it's pretty straightforward. No horror stories of young girls at school collapsed in pools of seeping blood...
(Those kind of stories would be for the women in my clan, a line of ferocious and spectacular bleeders, whose stories are pure Hammer House)

I think I'd rather just try a mooncup.

Dial Hard

timthumbni wrote:

My experience of those on benefits (in Northern Ireland) is certainly not on the whole that they couldn't afford sanitary pads for their kids. Though no doubt these sorts of stories will appear in the next ken loach movie.

Just cause you haven't come across it, means it doesn't happen. Right so.

Autonomous Cowherd

And though it's somewhat off track from OP's question, further to the debate re disposable and reusable...
Disposable tampons and STs don't just disappear when they go in the trash....if flushed they may bob about later in the ocean, if put in your bin they may reappear on the recycling conveyor belt to be sorted at your local waste management system, if dropped in the bins beside public toilets those bins have to be handled by sanitation workers and are the place in public loos that pose the most threat to their health with all sorts of transmittable diseases found in tests. The thoughts of any of those things happening should surely make us feel far more squeamish than using reusable cloth for which we take responsibility? No?

timthumbni

Dial Hard wrote: »

Just cause you haven't come across it, means it doesn't happen. Right so.

Of course extreme situations happen and not just for those on benefits. But it isn't the norm, not by a long way.

Permabear

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Dial Hard

Permabear wrote:

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I think you're massively underestimating the cultural and familial factors that are also likely at play here. I suspect that for many of the affected girls, it's not nearly as simple as "Ah sure just go out and earn a few bob of your own".

Permabear

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whoopsadoodles

Permabear wrote: »

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Well first off girls of 9 years of age - and I guess probably up to 14 - can't just go out and earn a few quid.

The girls of 15 and above, if they're left to look after their siblings, if they're in abusive households where they simply can't head out on a babysitting job are stuck.

Then of course you have the issue whereby if they're that poor they're probably living somewhere not so upperclass, so their own neighbours are likely not heading out for the night and paying a babysitter to do so, and so the more middle class areas where they are likely to pick up a few quid don't want the "likes of them" minding their children.

I would also hazard a guess that the ones whose parents can't give them a pound for sanitary towels, are also the most vulnerable in many many other ways.

It's not always as black and white as teenagers going out making money of their own to buy pads.

A pound, or two pound even. A month. Think about what kind of lives those children must have?

Neyite

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Off the top of my head...certain religions not permitting a daughter to work, or to be unchaperoned in another persons house where there is an unrelated male present.

Or a 9 year old menstruating who would be too young to babysit.

Or a teen that has hopeless/addict parents and is basically rearing younger siblings and has no evening free to babysit.

Reusable sanitary ware might be an option, if they have access to a basin/bucket to steep cloths in, and if they have detergent to wash them, and a place to dry them. But even so the initial outlay to set yourself up with enough reusable towels might be financially out of reach for a teen.

Mooncups are brilliant, but they cost €20. If you cant afford €1 a month, you are not going to be able to afford a mooncup. Then there are cultural concerns where girls might be not allowed to wear internal sanitary ware - disposable like tampax or reusable like a mooncup.

Widdershins

Reusable is a good option. You just throw them into a container to soak and throw into a washing machine instead of throwing into a rubbish bin. It's a couple more steps and not a lot of effort since you would do it when you'd be sorting laundry anyway. The problem is, the initial outlay is too much for some people to manage in one go. I have heard that Mooncups and similar, don't fit everyone, and it might be necessary to buy different shapes and sizes until the right fit is found. It's so much better for the environment and your budget, if you can do it. Throwing sanitary products away isn't really an option imo, because there is no ''away'', it has to go somewhere and that's not very pleasant. I have heard that our rubbish gets shipped abroad and I don't think it's right. If we had to look at festering mountains of rubbish we'd change our attitude. If we had to fight an incinerator or a dump being opened on our doorstep we'd soon start to care about what gets thrown out.

I don't think that level of poverty is an indication of mismanaged finances or addiction, as has been said, social welfare isn't that high in the UK. People who haven't experienced poverty don't realise how one thing affects another and it can see impossible to get back on your feet. And if there are addictions maybe they are a result of depression from grinding poverty. I wouldn't judge people for doing something stupid out of despair.

nosilver

timthumbni wrote: »

You are always going to have kids suffer in households where their parents are more interested in buying alcohol and cigs than necessities. This applies to working families too though obviously the problem is highlighted more with those on benefits.

at £11 per 20 cigs even that is not affordable. But some people just love quoting unverified sterotype images from a media that has an agenda.

£73 benefits - sorry, but hard to see money for cigs or alcohol in that no matter how you look at it.

Always will be a few, but vast majority just struggle to buy the basics.

btw - less than 17% of adults smoke in UK.

Permabear

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Permabear

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nosilver

Permabear wrote: »

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I would have a wild guess that you have never been to the most socially deprived areas of Britain?

To even think a teenager could simply pick up a few quid from babysitting or anything in many of those areas is just ludicrous. And even if they did, they'd probably get a fiver.

Permabear

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Mr. CooL ICE

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

People should be allowed rip off the welfare system because "they would turn to crime"?

Fcuk em, let em starve.

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

I don't give a damn about their human rights.

The human rights of the victims of their criminal families are more important to me.

Mod: Well if you don't care about their human rights, I assume you won't mind me saying this.

Don't post in this thread again

Widdershins

R.E Absorbency for heavy periods: There are several different materials used n different types of cloth pads. Some materials hold many times their weight in liquid. Some are designed to absorb faster than others. You can buy extra long ones. I have found them as effective as conventional plastic and bleach pads. Salt water soak is easy and it cleans them well. You never know until you try one.

R.E: How to change them when at school or out on calls. You use a small wet bag and stick it in tour handbag or whatever. They are fine until you get a chance to deal with them at a later stage.

R.E potential toxic effects of using any form of cloth. I have never heard of any. You change the cloth just like you change the plastic pad.

ancapailldorcha

nosilver wrote: »

I would have a wild guess that you have never been to the most socially deprived areas of Britain?

I used to work in Wythenshawe, Europe's largest social housing project. Every day I'd get the bus to work and every day I'd overhear the schoolchildren talking. They all had the latest consoles, new Nikes and were regularly going to football matches. The place couldn't possibly have been more run down but somehow those all important Nikes and games got purchased anyway.