Well I am usual ppad hater...have to go the tmpon way and before having Noah was really not looking forward to these massive pads but anyway after reading a similar thread on here at the time and an overwhelming number of ppl recommending Kotex I went and got them.

They are really thick but it is heaven on a sore down there! The hospital I had Noah at had the stayfree ones and I used some of those and they are good too just not as padded as Kotex. I have bought one pack of stayfree so far but will use kotex closer to the birth

The absolute best advice I can give with maternity pads is something a wonderful midwife showed me with Noah. If you get 2 pads and overlap them a bit lengthways (so you have one super long pad) that way you have coverage from the very front to the very back, makes it very comfy and i never had even a single tiny stain on any of my underwear from having Noah....and I even used white and tan underwear....and I even had some placenta come out (way way tmi) the size of 2 fists put together and some the size of one fist and also had heavt bleeding after birth that the midwives wanted to keep and eye on so not like i had very light bleeding iykwim