Raggin' It

Do you ever wonder how women survived without Kotex and Tampax?  No monthly trip to the grocery store, or husbands running out in the middle of the night?  No plastic wrappers tucked into purses and plastic bits stuck to their lady bits?  No chemicals, dyes, irritants, and trash?  How did they make it while on the rag in a world of, quite literally, rags?

As Aunt Flo made her monthly appearance and supplies ran short, I made a hasty decision to take care of my little inconvenience the old-fashioned way.  First up: the pad.  I followed an easy-peasy tutorial to sew my own quick stash using an old bath towel, unused baby blankets, and a strip of fleece.  (The fleece actually only made it onto one).  As I finished my first one, I ran to the bathroom to check the fit... quite large and diaper-like, similar to the postpartum pads I received in the hospital.  But, not bad for an overnighter.  With some tweaks and adjustments, I went on to make a couple more with what supplies I had on hand.  Each pad consisted of four layers of flannel and one layer of terry.  Next came the panty-liners.  I'll use these on days when Aunt Flo isn't quite so flow-y.  I made my own quick pattern for these and just used two layers of flannel and one layer of terry.

Today I decided to tackle the question of the reusable tampon.  What to use?  I found a neat set of crocheted ones on etsy, but figured that was too pricey and wouldn't get here quite quick enough.  The same seller offers patterns, but I didn't really want to have to make a special trip to the yarn store.  I imagine, once I get around to crocheting some, I would prefer to use organic, unbleached yarn for such an item anyway.  So, I looked to the internet once more and found the suggestion of using a clean baby sock.  Again, I wasn't really feeling it.  Finally, I decided to cut a prefold diaper into small rectangles, finish the edges, and roll them up.

Off to the bathroom for a try....

I have to admit, I felt a little barbaric shoving a rag up inside my lady bits for the first time.  I really do prefer the tampons with the nice, smooth plastic applicators.  However, my little prefold-rolled rag is working pretty well.  I probably wouldn't go swimming with it, but for around the house it's fine and dandy. 

I feel liberated to not be obligated to throw money at giant companies for a box of plastic and chemicals each month.  I do wonder if using more natural products really does lighten one's flow, as some moms claim.  I suppose it would take a few months to really find out.  At any rate, my new mama cloth stash will come in handy on days when Auntie pops in for an unexpected visit or funds become too tight for tampax.