Great comments from yesterday, mamas!
Nichole mentioned trying to get the hang of cloth diapering before she took the plunge into mama cloth, but I have to say that in my experience the learning curve with cloth pads is much less steep than the one with cloth diapers. With cloth diapering, there are so many choices and systems - it's all very overwhelming in the beginning. Or it was for me anyway!
There are a few basic decisions to be made with mama cloth: what sort of waterproof material do you want it backed with (PUL? Wool? Heavy fleece?), what length would you like for the pad to be, wings or no wings, one snap or two . . . So yes, some decisions to be made. But really, that's the fun part! With disposable pads and tampons, your customization choices are limited to light, medium, or heavy flow. One of the gorgeous things about mama cloth is that you get to pick what works for you and your unique body and preferences.
Trust me when I say that caring for cloth pads is basically fool-proof! You can soak them or not, dry them in the dryer or not (well, unless you use wool backing - then you won't want to dry them in the dryer), treat staining or don't. It's really no big deal.
For anyone who is even slightly intrigued, I highly suggest you order yourself some liners and just see what you think. They generally run about $6 each, so if you hate it, you aren't out that much. I'm sure there is some way you could recycle its use around the house, and I am going to stop short of listing some of the inappropriate ideas that just came to my mind. :)
Two of my fave mama cloth makers are Daisy Girl Designs and Go With The Flo. Daisy Girl makes an amazing thong pad, probably my very favorites in my stash. I have to warn you these are pretty tricky to get a hold of, but you can find some if you know where/how to look. Robin at Go With The Flo is an outstanding seamstress and uses scrumptious materials. I love her mini-pads the best.
Noah mentioned Luna Pads, and although I haven't tried these, they are certainly a well-established and popular maker of mama cloth. And finally, Homemade Mama is an extremely popular WAHM maker of cloth pads who shares lots of good information on her site. I am hoping to be able to add at least one, if not two, of her Ultimate II Pads for postpartum use.
If and when some of ya'll decide to give it a try, please do let me know. I would love to hear your experiences - good and bad!
