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Why Talk Red to Your Dad
In many households, conversations about periods are often left to mothers and daughters. However, it’s essential to break down these traditional barriers. Here’s why you shouldn’t feel awkward mentioning periods to your dad. There is nothing to be hush about 🤫 Menstruation is a natural biological process that all womankind experience. There’s no secrecy or need to treat periods as something shameful. Normalizing conversations about periods with all family members, including dads, helps to break the stigma and makes it easier for everyone to address menstrual health openly and honestly 🫂Better Communication & Connection Open communication within a family strengthens relationships, by strengthening empathy. When you feel comfortable discussing periods with your dad, it encourages a more inclusive and supportive relationship. It allows him the opportunity to empathize & provide you with better support when needed. This openness can extend to other important topics, fostering trust and mutual respect. 🩸Educating Dads on Menstrual Health Many fathers may not have had the opportunity to learn much about menstruation. By talking to your dad about your period, you’re not only educating him but also helping him become a better ally and advocate for menstrual health. This knowledge can be beneficial for him to support you and other family members more effectively. 💪🏼Empowering Daughters and Fathers Alike Breaking the silence around periods empowers both daughters and fathers. For daughters, it reduces feelings of shame or embarrassment. For fathers, it provides a chance to demonstrate their care in yet another important aspect of their daughter’s life. 🤫Breaking Down the “hush-hush” By having open conversations about periods with your dad, you contribute to breaking down outdated gender stereotypes. It challenges the notion that periods are a “woman’s issue” and shows that men can be informed and supportive parents in menstrual health. The onus need not fall all on the mother. ❗Practical Tips for Starting the Conversation If you’re unsure how to bring up the topic of periods with your dad, we have suuuper helpful tips for you: 👉🏼Start Simple: Begin with basic information and gauge his response. “Dad, I wanted to talk to you about something important regarding my health.” 👉🏼Be Honest: Share your feelings and why it’s important for you to have his support. 👉🏼Provide Context: Explain what you might need from him, whether it’s understanding, emotional support, or help in getting period products. 👉🏼Use Resources: Share educational resources or articles that can help him understand menstrual health better. 👉🏼Be Patient: Give him time to process and ask questions. It might be new for him, but with time, it will become easier. Conclusion Talking about periods with your dad may feel awkward initially, but it’s a step towards greater understanding and support within your family. Remember, periods are a natural part of life, and involving your dad in these conversations can lead to a more open, inclusive, and supportive relationship 💜 By breaking the silence, you empower yourself and those around you, paving the way for a future where menstrual health is no longer a taboo subject 🩸
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Community Spotlight: Environment Day Cut
Every sustainable journey begins with easy-to-adopt switches. While several customers choose Nushu period underwear for comfort, rarely do we find customers who are passionate about making the switch to save the planet! So we reached out to Sonia, a Nushu customer, to understand her perspective and her inspirations in making the switch for sustainability reasons! 🌸 🌱Sustainability Advocate: Sonia Agarwal Bajaj, Agra 👉🏼Nushu: What inspired you to switch to period underwear from pads? Sonia: I was using regular pads before I started using period underwear. I’ve always been a sustainability advocate, and I’m constantly looking for sustainable alternatives to my everyday necessities. I’ve switched to laundry detergent pellets instead of liquid detergent that come in plastic bottles. We switched from regular diapers for my toddler, to bamboo-based ones. What inspired me was doing the math - 6 diapers/day for 2 years is a lot of plastic diapers disposed! So when I would use pads, sure they were convenient since they’re disposable, but it would break my heart to see so many pads contributing to waste. We live in a world where landfills are so polluted and to contribute to that was disheartening. I believe sustainable practices need to be a priority. I don’t believe in making 1 grand contribution a year, I think what brings real change is making small, permanent tweaks in your lifestyle. 👉🏼Nushu: How has your experience been with period underwear compared to pads? Sonia: We use pads because we know it won’t leak; it's disposable so it feels convenient & hygienic, but pads are just plastic & chemicals. With period underwear, it solves all of those problems for me even though it's not disposable and it's so comfortable! I don’t have to differentiate between a day when I’m bleeding and when I'm not – I just wear my underwear. That’s so convenient! 👉🏼Nushu: Have you tried other sustainable menstrual products like menstrual cups, reusable pads, etc? How does period underwear compare? Sonia: I haven’t tried other sustainable options yet, because period underwear was the first alternative I tried and I loved it. Had it not worked out, I would have probably gone back to pads or looked for other alternatives. 👉🏼Nushu: What upgrades would you like to see in the future regarding sustainable menstrual products? Sonia: I think I’d like to see more acceptance of the product & affordability. I’m able to afford a reusable product like this, but I’m sure price is a deterrent for several women who might be open to trying it. Another thing would be - If it's somehow made easier to wash, that would be great. Currently, I soak it and squeeze it a few times to ensure all the blood is out. 👉🏼Nushu: Do you have any closing thoughts for people who are considering making the switch? Sonia: Just try it once! I was hesitant too at first, but I thought to myself, even if it doesn’t work for me, I can always just go back to pads. So what’s the harm in trying it. Once I did, I bought 6 more pieces because I was so happy with it! Not to mention it saves almost 500 pads/year for me. So just try it! Conclusion: A huge contributor to global warming is the strained waste management system. While we cannot dictate how waste is managed by several administrative bodies, what we can do is do the little things that make it a little easier to manage waste on a community level 👥👥 Every one of us holds the responsibility to make our environment a better place - Sonia and several customers who lead by example, inspire us to do better & provide better :) If you’re ready to take the leap in your sustainable menstrual care journey, here’s where you can start! 🫶🏽
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Why I started Nushu
Nushu was born from the idea of a new period 🩸 For too long now, periods have been perceived as a weakness, by both society, and the menstruator themselves. After trying period underwear myself, my perception of my period changed drastically: Having to wash it removed the stigma of period blood being disgusting. I started accepting the bloating during my period. Resting on my period became intentional and guilt free. My inner dialogue was kinder while I PMSed. All in all, it connected me to my cycle and my body which in turn led to more self respect. I wanted every woman to experience this. I felt it could possibly help bridge the gap in gender inequality! I dug more into existing period products, and found that one of the many reasons periods feel taboo is because of the disposable nature of commonly used period products, like pads and tampons. These products make you ‘dispose’ of your period, with an uncomfortable look on your face, buried under layers and layers of toilet paper. Besides, using period underwear has had a positive effect on other parts of my life too. Making sustainable choices comes at greater ease, because I realized reducing waste isn’t difficult, and in fact it feels good to throw less away. If period underwear works for someone, its positive features have a widespread effect! We understand that taking the leap could be a risky, difficult decision, especially if we’ve been using the same product, the same brand for decades! This is why for Menstrual Hygiene Day this year, we offered a free period panty with every order. We wanted to make it lighter on the wallet, so you feel more comfortable making the purchase, especially if you’d been curious. To trust a new product that barely anyone you know uses, can be a daunting leap of faith. Trusting an underwear to not only soak, but also lock your flow in, can feel questionable at first. We hope, this Menstrual Hygiene Day, we’ve enabled more women to not just try the underwear, but make it a part of their monthly ritual 💜 Love, Avisha
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Why Celebrate Menstrual Hygiene Day?
Roughly 70% of reproductive health issues in women are caused by poor menstrual hygiene. Menstrual Hygiene Day puts a spotlight on the need for sustainable, accessible menstrual products and good sanitation facilities, especially in low-income and rural areas where these products might not be accessible. 📖Lack of information/ Misinformation: Traditional cultural norms have often prevented open dialogues about menstruation, restricting access to crucial information about normal female bodily functions. This prevents several women (and young girls) from speaking up when going through immense pain and discomfort. Not only is information often restricted, we’ve all heard all sorts of misconceptions floating around out there – from age old taboos to outright unscientific explanations of how women's bodies work! These misconceptions can lead to discrimination and social exclusion, affecting women and girls in their education, work, and daily lives. 🏫Poor Infrastructure & Access: Managing menstrual hygiene is especially difficult for women in developing countries due to the lack of clean water and proper toilet facilities. ❗Close to 23 million girls ❗in India drop out of school each year once they start menstruating. Several girls miss school during their periods because they don't have the right facilities or fear embarrassment, since 1 in 10 girls below the age of 21, cannot afford sanitary products. The lack of access to menstrual products and hygienic facilities, creates further disparities in education and opportunity for girls. ▶️Where it all began... Menstrual Hygiene Day was initiated by the German non-profit WASH United in 2012. In May 2013, WASH United launched a 28-day social media campaign called "May #MENSTRAVAGANZA" on platforms like Twitter to raise awareness about menstruation and its importance in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) development initiatives. The campaign, supported by WASH Advocates, Girls' Globe, and Ruby Cup, received positive feedback, leading to the creation of a global awareness day for menstruation (source). On May 28, 2014, Menstrual Hygiene Day was celebrated worldwide, for the first time, with various events such as rallies, exhibitions, movie screenings, workshops, and speeches. The inaugural celebration saw participation from 145 partner organisations (source). ➡️What's next? Menstrual Hygiene Day is an opportunity to acknowledge and do our bit to tackle the challenges faced by millions of women and girls worldwide 🩸Roughly 54% of menstruating women in India, do not have access to menstrual care products🩸 Not only is our period underwear a safer alternative for women with access to period care, we can leverage what we have to ensure better health & hygiene for rural communities. Additionally, our period underwear lasts 2 years, so it eliminates the worry of running out. We feel responsible to get women the period care they need. So we often partner or take on community-driven initiatives to ensure women receive the menstrual products they deserve. Check out our CSR initiatives right here. 🫴🏽What can you do? The goal is simple – to make safer, sustainable menstrual care more accessible! 🩸 We’re immensely grateful for donors who choose to donate our period underwear to underprivileged communities, rural schools, etc; making sustainable, safe period care more accessible. We also make it a point to personally visit the communities to educate – make information on menstruation & menstrual care more accessible. If you would like to make a difference, just drop us a message on +91-8454870509 :) Sources: https://toybox.org.uk/news/spotlight-on-period-poverty-in-india https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4463372/ https://web.archive.org/web/20180809123231/https://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2014/05/Menstrual-Hygiene-Day-A-Milestone-for-Women-and-Girls-Worldwide#.VZHNVEZKYsI
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Community Spotlight: A mother knows best, and we have proof!
At Nushu, we believe a mother knows best, but rarely do we celebrate a mother’s insight and careful deliberation in making the right choices for her daughter 💜 So this Mother’s Day, we dug into our community and spoke to Rashmi, who took the leap, and chose period underwear over pads for her daughter. As mother to 13-year-old Akaisha, Rashmi shared her insights on how she ensures that her teenage daughter fosters a healthy relationship with her body, and how using period underwear has had a ripple effect on her daughter ✨ 🚨 Community Spotlight: 🚨Mother: Rashmi, DelhiDaughter: Akaisha, Delhi 👉🏼Nushu: How do you plan to celebrate your daughter's milestones as she transitions into womanhood? Rashmi: Quite honestly, we didn’t really “celebrate” any milestones, like her first period, because I wanted to normalise it for her. I figured that making it a big deal might cause her to overthink the process, so it was a conscious choice to treat it that way. 👉🏼Nushu: How do you ensure an open & supportive dialogue with your daughter about her changing body? Rashmi: I think the prep for a sensitive conversation with your daughter starts much earlier on. From the get go, I’ve consciously built a friendship with her, so she is comfortable enough to come to me when something goes wrong. She knows that no matter what, her mom is there to back her up. So now, she is very open about everything with me. 👉🏼Nushu: Did that make “the talk” about menstruation easier? Rashmi: Before I spoke to her about it, she had already had a couple of educational sessions in school about it. She had friends who started bleeding before she did. So when I brought it up, she said “Mumma, I already know all this”. But yes, it did help. The only thing she asked me was, “Mumma, zyada dard toh nahi hoga?” (It wouldn’t hurt too much, right?). To that, I reassured her that, as long as she tells me everything she is going through, we will figure everything out. This is normal. 👉🏼Nushu: What urged you to buy period panties for your daughter? Rashmi: I came across Nushu when my daughter had already started menstruating – it had been a couple of years. Initially she was using pads, but since her flow was super heavy, she would constantly leak through them. Plus, they were extremely uncomfortable, so I really wanted to get her something she could wear comfortably, for long hours, without leakage! I did my own research, spoke to the team, ensured that the sizing would be right, and finally decided to buy her a pair to try! Since then, she has been wearing Nushu Period Panties every single cycle! She is super comfortable in them and she hasn’t leaked at all since she started wearing them. 👉🏼Nushu: What lessons have you learned from your own experiences with menstruation that you hope to pass on to your daughter? Rashmi: One practice I’d pass onto her is maintaining top-notch personal hygiene. But other than that, I think I grew up with quite a few misconceptions around menstrual blood – that it’s dirty and cannot be touched. Another one was – I can’t visit the temple, I can’t wash my hair except on certain days, etc, which a lot of us have grown up with. Those are things that I want her to know are just irrelevant! We’ve all heard these unsaid rules and imposed limitations that are never backed by logic or science. I would never want these “rules” to faze her relationship with her own body and cycle. 👉🏼Nushu: What advice would you give to other mothers considering period underwear for their children? Rashmi: It’s not the 90s anymore. If we have better choices than pads, then why not explore them? One lovely ripple effect I noticed was – using Period Panties has made my daughter more responsible for her own hygiene and more independent as well. She washes her own underwear without my interference, so she is more conscious about her hygiene that way. We’re immensely grateful for all the mothers out there who grew out of the taboos they were raised with so they could raise their daughters with more confidence and freedom! Today’s young girls are tomorrow’s women who navigate life with poise and conviction 💜 Shop some of our bestselling period underwear right here
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Women's Day: Yet another perspective revamped!
I have to admit, I’ve always questioned the purpose of Women’s Day. Being a feminist, I thought women’s day was counterproductive, and that it actually victimized women and gave society a reason to remember the inferior position of women throughout history. However, given this year is my baby Nushu’s first Women’s Day, my team and I sat down (2 days ago - lol) to discuss content, and that forced me to reevaluate what women’s day means for: Nushu as a brand Society Me as a woman Are we close to providing women across societal constraints, equitable opportunities? Have we reached a point where women are truly free in society? Are we ready to celebrate that yet? My answer to all the above is no. However… I didn’t want to do a women’s day push without believing in it. I’d like to share my new found perspective on women’s day with you, in case it may resonate… Women’s day is… A day to commemorate how far women have come along in history despite the odds. An opportunity to get inspired by all the amazing women who have fought for women’s rights throughout history. An indicator that we all have a role to play in advancing the position of women in society today. A reminder that other women have your back too! A whole lotta hope for the future <3 I hope you too will find the true meaning of what Women’s Day means to you. Also, it’s not Valentine's day, so thanks but no thanks to the flowers…get them Nushu period underwear instead ;)
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