Poor you rorylex, thats sounds like alot of bleeding.

I bought about 2 packs of the stayfree thick things, and 2 packs of libra ones. The maternity unit gave me like a pack of 5 cotton swab things that were tiny and useless, but straight after my shower my MW made up a nappy thing of those blue sheets of stuff that catch everything when your on the bed, etc and 2 of the crappy mat unit ones which held everything in. I felt like a bit of a dick but it worked well.

After the first few hours I went straight into the stayfree pillows the I think by the time I went home I was using libra ones. I have 1 unopened pack of stayfree and have the other pack still left. Bt I think my bleedig was veeeery light compared to most.

I was lucky and only bled for 1.5weeks. I second the super budget pads and wearing two at a time side by side, to stop side leakage. That way your not going to the loo every five seconds. Also got told to change them everytime you fed, so thats something worth thinking about. I found I had too many and still have them and only bought two packs of the budget and one of the maternity ones then had to move onto the ultra thins as I was hardly bleeding and it was hurting me to have them in there, sounds stupid I know lol. Then I moved onto panty liners by 1week.

Also on the libra and carefree packs it has a comparison chart to show you how much they absorb etc

Cool thanks heaps for that, I start getting a few packets together

please excuse my ignorace and the fact that I'm slightly off topic, but not having been though this before I'm a little lost, I was wondering if someone would hopefully enlighten me to the approximate  number of packets pads a person would likely need after they give birth?

I'm sorry if this seems like a stupid question but I'm new at this game and honestly have no idea, of the number I should get.