Ok, with DS1 I was so self-conscious and tried not to get blood on the white hospital towels after showering.

Will be expecting another baby in April and was just wondering what others do about using towels after showering.

Is it just me feeling weird about it? what do you do? I'm bit embarrassed by it. What's the etiquette?

Thanks

I'd say they would expect it, thats why they change the towels daily. And given everything else that they see...whats a little more blood smile

Personally i just wiped with toilet paper after showering before putting a pad on so i didnt get any on the towels.

I'm pretty sure there cleaned up worse then after birth blood lol
I just made sure I had really cleaned myself in the shower of course you still drip a tad but a few spots I wouldn't worry about Hun.
If its like our midwifery we had a big bin thing where we would put the towels face washes in ourselves so no one knew what came from who.
You could take your own towel and get your partner to take it home each day if your really self conscious about it but honestly I wouldn't stress about imagine cleaning the beds in the labour room a bit of blood would be nothing to that smile

They are hospital towels - you're meant to get blood (or whatever bodily fluid) on them. They are thoroughly washed in boiling water (and probably bleach type products) so there are no germs left on them. They go in a linen skip, and after that no-one sees them till they get to the laundry - somewhere far away from the hospital.

In my 13 years of nursing I have seen thousands of bloodied towels - never gave them a second thought unless the blood was coming out of somewhere it wasn't meant to be coming from, or if someone was haemorrhaging.

smile Thanks ladies - feeling much better now!

Yeah, with DS1 I did the same thing by wiping with toilet paper as best i could before drying myself. Don't feel self conscious now. Thanks also Cruxy for your nursing insight. Really appreciate it.

Tbh I took some of the hospital towels home so I wouldn't get mine all my ones at home bloody. However straight after I gave birth to bubs I had a shower and use their towels, loved it caused they had been warmed. You can also think of the linen that you use when in labour, pretty much the same thing, hope that makes things better not worse : )

I felt weird too with my first but I used to have my new undies already with a pad and kind of pat my self dry there first and put my undies on first then dried the rest .

I didn't really care about it.. I did but diddn't...
There was a place to put dirty towles in the bathroom anyway smile

Never phased me. I think the hospital sees it's fair share of blood!

I brought my own DARK coloured towels. I brought two so dh could take one home to wash and if he didn't get it back by next morning it didn't matter. But the shower I had straight after birth I used theirs and they had a big plastic bin to put dirty laundry in so I just chucked it in there so noons knew any way.

I went to town on those towels. Bled ALL over them. Mopped up blood with them. It's what they're there for. You've just endured child birth. Noone is expecting you to be prim and proper. It's life.
After i had my girl, because it happened so fast and the cirumstances, i was in a tiny bit of shock so my first shower consisted of the midwife washing me and dressing me while i shook and stared blankly. She wasn't too fussed about blood all over the towles so i didn't feel the need to.
They have methods of cleaning and storing and moving bloody items like this so your not creating Hell for the cleaning ladies.

Agree with Skippy, there was that much blood i didn't really have a choice or give it that much thought.

They expect it and to be honest there is no way I am creating myself any unnecessary washing or wasting my good towels on it! They would probably have much more reliable disinfectant methods with their industrial washing machines etc as well and I also had a dirty linen thingy right next to the bathroom.

because of my long labour (41hrs)... i really couldnt function... my mum gave me a wash down... there was blood everywhere and i got it on their towels and we chucked them in the linen bin... i guess they expect this to happen that is why their towels are white so they can bleach them

My sister had to help me have my first shower. I was being careful but she said who cares just get yourself dry so i did!
I had a linen skip in my room which was awesome.

Well, I definitely didn't want to flood the towel with blood, but I didn't worry too much because I didn't have to wash them and they were changed everyday. I did probably get a little bit on them sometimes though.

I had a c-section so didn't have my shower til the next day.
It was the first time I had stood up - not a good idea... ended up passing out in the shower, luckily it was about 3 seconds after my husband came in because he had yelled out to me to see if I was ok and I wasn't with it enough to answer. He came in just in time to catch me and sit me down, pressed the alarm so in came a midwife with me starkers and bleeding - not pretty! At the time I was terribly embarrassed, but like she said, they have seen it all. After that, bleeding on a towel didn't bother me so much!

Thats what they are for, Im a nurse and the amount of bodily fluids that get on the linen is horrible, but somehow the people that wash them (yes there are people that have to sort it) get them all out. Blood is probably the easiest to get out, not going into the other fluids.

I had no problem using the hospital towels as I knew they were clean

Well i spent an hour or two lyin on the bed completely in shock, bubs in NICU and midwives kept asking me if i wanted to shower, well I waited until my partner was there to help me, i collapsed in the shower, my partner pretty much had to hose me clean, then just sat on a towel and waited til i felt i could stand, so you can imagine i got blood over everything.

I'm going to be taking in some of my own towels but will definitely be using their white towels too.

I also wiped with toilet paper before and after patting the rest of myself dry. I actually don't remember getting any blood on the towels except for after my very first shower and I certainly didn't give a hoot about that then.

I was worried and a bit embarrassed about that too. But to be totally honest, even though I cleaned myself REALLY well in the shower, by the time I'd turned off the water and got out I had blood everywhere again down there anyway. So had no choice but to use the towels for myself and to clean up the drips on the floor. Let's be honest though, if they couldn't handle the blood they'd be in another career!

I felt weird too with my first but I used to have my new undies already with a pad and kind of pat my self dry there first and put my undies on first then dried the rest .

Glad im not the only one that did that....!!! Thought i was the only one smile

Glad im not the only one that did that....!!! Thought i was the only one smile

I did it too! After my first shower I realised so I had my undies with a pad all ready and wiped my legs and crutch quickly then once undies were on I dried the rest of me.

When my middie sent me for my first shower she gave me 2 pads. She told me to stick one between my legs (not stuck on enything) even before I started drying myself, then dry and dress after with the other pad. And chuck out the first pad. Although it meant I went through a few pads meant I never ended up having blood dribble down my nice clean legs. And yep, still got blood on the towel when I did dry down there.

The midwife who looked after me just after I had DD1 gave me a pad to stick between my legs and said not to put any undies on and when to put another hospital gown on and prepared the wheelchair with large absorbent pads (like 60cm X 60cm) and told me not to bother putting undies on until I had another shower the next day. She also prepared my bed the same way when we got to my room!

Not sure if this was because DD1 sliced me fairly well on her way out or what. It took the ob. over 1hr to stitch me up.

I tried not to get too much blood on the towels for the showers I had after that but the blood just kept coming! Tried sticking a pad there while I wiped the rest of me but it always seemed to find it's way down my leg.

The blood was nowhere near as bad with DS(caesar) or DD2(natural) but I still usually got a bit of blood on the towels!

WOW, to think that I was really embarrassed to even put up this question, I'm amazed at the amount views and responses!

Thanks for all your comments, and great tips/suggestions/experiences - now it's a non-issue for me. And hopefully it will help other people too smile

Making hospital towels dirty were the least of my concern with DS! I had a csection and the midwife had to help me shower for my first one and I bled all over the bathroom floor. Awkward yep!

Making hospital towels dirty were the least of my concern with DS! I had a csection and the midwife had to help me shower for my first one and I bled all over the bathroom floor. Awkward yep!

This is why I don't like sharing a bathroom! With DS1 I only had to share a room with 1 other person but felt yuck seeing a little bit of her blood on the bathroom floor. This time around, I'm going private and hope to get a room on my own. I NEED my own bathroom!! grin

This is why I don't like sharing a bathroom! With DS1 I only had to share a room with 1 other person but felt yuck seeing a little bit of her blood on the bathroom floor. This time around, I'm going private and hope to get a room on my own. I NEED my own bathroom!! grin

I went private with DS so had my own bathroom but will be going public with any future babies so it will suck having to share a bathroom!!

This is why I don't like sharing a bathroom! With DS1 I only had to share a room with 1 other person but felt yuck seeing a little bit of her blood on the bathroom floor. This time around, I'm going private and hope to get a room on my own. I NEED my own bathroom!! grin

that shouldn't happen - it's an infection control issue; the midwives/cleaners should have cleaned it up

Know what you mean... But use them without embarrassment, and use lots of them!

Asked my partner (doctor) about it and he said nobody blinks an eye in hospitals - especially not at blood on towels! The hospital wants you to recover and those towels are hospital grade hygenic! Apparently they get bundled away and are annonymously cleaned in a central depot so it won't even be any of the staff you see cleaning them (ie they won't be like 'Oh, I have to clean THAT later!')

I wouldn't take my own towels because to be honest, the laundromat systems hospitals have/employ are above and beyond anything my domestic machine could offer! ...And then you just have a dirty towel sitting around the room until someone takes it home to clean...

I used to be really embarrassed in hospitals (and with doctors) but honestly now I know that the staff have seen it all before (they always have seen worse) and are so understanding of your situation. Good luck!

ps. Don't forget hospitals provide towel nappies for newborns too... Pretty sure that some of those first poos trump our blood, hur hur!