My boys asked about periods. I told them that every month a woman's body makes a comfy nest for a baby to grow but if there is no baby then they body gets rid of the nest and grows again.

There is a book about the difficult questions children ask. I think the author is Mariam Stoppard (or something similar). It has age appropraite answers for all sorts of awkward questions.
bilby keeps on asking me, why i have mumma pads. She sees my drawer of them, wonders what they are. So she's not asking about periods as such, has not seen me bleeding or anything, has just seen unused pads and is curious about why i reach for those (once a month obviously, not that she registers it's once a month). I try to manage my periods out of her sight, but she has this uncanny knack of wanting me, just when i need some privacy, our bathroom is 1.5 x 1.6 in size. it's very close to the kitchen and her bedroom. everywhere is very close in our place.

I guess my fear is, the accompanying questions, not just the first one. She has pretty good logic. So if i say - women bleed once a month, so that's why i need the mumma pads - i suspect she will think about that and come back to me with, "when will that happen to me mum?" - so that's another question i'm unsure how to answer (a five year) about. She already has lots of bad dreams, forever asking me when will i die (she's scared of her mummy and daddy dying and leaving her alone, as she has so few relatives), so talking about bleeding - which she might relate to sickness/dying - i am nervous about.

She seems quite comfortable about concepts like breastfeeding and a baby coming out of a mummy's vagina. I cannot bring myself to discuss the c-section i had with her, i feel too upset to discuss that memory, i have "shut her down" when she starts talking about it - cos of course, being a kid, she uses blunt language which i can't cope with.

i have been told, in our state education system, Protective Behaviours is a principle, taught from kindy. But what she has been told so far, is very mild, more stuff to do with privacy and self esteem.