By the time Jacob came our cash had run out.. I had to ask family to buy me maternity pads
Mum’s experience of period poverty scandal
NEW mum Shauna Gauntlett had so little money after the birth of her son that she could not afford maternity pads to tackle her post-natal bleeding.
The struggle to buy the pads is one example of the scandal of “period poverty”.
Shauna, 30, from Dundee, was delighted when Jacob was born. But he arrived in the middle of the month, between pay days for her civil servant husband.
Surviving on only one low wage, the couple had a lot of unexpected expenditure due to their new baby. A delay in the payment of tax credits pushed them to the breadline.
Shauna said: “By the time Jacob came, our money had run out. We had nothing. All our money had gone on bills and essentials.”
She bled for more than a month and hadn’t expected the extra outlay on maternity and sanitary pads.
Shauna said: “I hadn’t realised I would bleed for so long and I just didn’t have the money, so I had to ask family and friends to buy those products.”
A project that will provide free feminine sanitary products to low-income women was launched this week in Scotland.
The six-month initiative, rolled out through charities and schools in seven regeneration areas in Aberdeen, is a bid to end period poverty. If successful, it will be extended across the country.
The only women who are automatically given free sanitary protection in Scotland are prisoners.
Sanitary products are also being offered free to students and staff at South Lanarkshire College as part of an equality scheme that was launched in January.
Shauna is a self-employed drama teacher. But because she had a difficult pregnancy, she couldn’t work.
At times after the birth, she had to change the pads once an hour. She was getting through a packet a day, costing £14 a week.
That came on top of the upheaval of having a child and the stress of trying to find money for food.
Shauna said: “There were times when I didn’t think I could cope.
“I didn’t want to say to the midwife, in case I was judged. So I only told those closest to me and I am lucky they were so kind – but, really, no woman should be in that position.”
While women normally bleed only for a few days a month, new mums can bleed for at least a month after the birth.
A pack of maternity pads will be included in the baby box being rolled out across Scotland next month. But one pack will last a new mum no more than a day.
Shauna works as a volunteer at a food bank in Dundee and has come across many women suffering from period poverty. She said: “It is something people are very embarrassed about. “I still get embarrassed about buying sanitary towels, regardless of how natural it is – and that’s just asking for them in a shop, so having to ask for them for free is really hard for many women. “This new Scottish Government pilot can only be a good thing but availability should be universal and very accessible. Women will be too ashamed to ask.” At food banks, women are asked if they need sanitary products to save them the embarrassment of having to raise the issue. MSP Monica Lennon is launching a private member’s bill to help women and girls who cannot access or afford sanitary products.
She said: “What use is a free prescription for period pain relief if low pay and insecure zero-hour contracts are forcing menstruating women to stuff their pants with toilet paper?
“What difference will the ‘attainment challenge’ make if you are a girl sitting in class with the embarrassment of a saturated sanitary towel between your legs?”
“We need to end period poverty and improve access to sanitary products right across Scotland. That’s why I will soon be launching a consultation on a member’s bill proposal to give all women in Scotland the right to access these products for free, regardless of their income.”
It is estimated that, on average, a woman in the UK spends more than £18,000 during her lifetime on period-related purchases, including tampons, pads and pain relief.
Sanitary protection can be prohibitively expensive, especially given it is still subject to VAT as a “luxury product”.
Last year, then PM David Cameron announced that “Britain will be able to have a zero rate for sanitary products, meaning the end of the tampon tax”.
Following Brexit complications, this amendment won’t materialise until next April.
Ewan Gurr, of The Trussell Trust, said: “Food banks in our network have met women who have been using newspaper, socks or toilet roll instead of sanitary products because they couldn’t afford anything more.
“We welcome this pilot to tackle the issue of affording what The Trussell Trust believe must be considered a basic necessity.”