Nishmat's Women’s Health and HalachaIn memory of Chaya Mirel bat R' Avraham

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Using white pads

28 April, 2009
Question:

Hi,

I am married and 31 weeks pregnant BH. I have always needed to use daily protection pads, but since the beginning of my pregnancy I was told to use the BLACK daily pads and that’s what i do. (also because of the pregnancy I have more discharge than usual).

My question is: am I allowed to use normal WHITE daily pads at this stage, without any concern if the discharge has some brown color in it?
I ask because the white ones are more comfortable to me, since they come with wings…and blacks dont.

Thank you!


Answer:

Be-sha’ah tovah!

We follow the halachic position that stains on disposable pads or pantiliners do not make a woman niddah, even if the pads are white. According to this ruling, you may wear disposable white daily pads without concern.

There is halachic dispute on this topic. So you may have been instructed to use black pads because you follow a different halachic position–that stains found on disposable white pads could make a woman niddah. You can clarify with your halachic authority how they rule on this question. If you follow strict rulings regarding disposable white pads, then wearing colored pads would be advisable when you want protection without the risk of becoming niddah from staining. You could look into colored cloth pads, some of which come with wings.

For a detailed halachic discussion of feminine hygiene products, please see our article here.

For a detailed discussion of the laws of stains, please see our article and videos here. Note that not all shades of brown will render a woman niddah.

This response was updated on 13 June, 2023.

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