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When it came to preparing for my son’s arrival two years ago, I didn’t go overboard with purchases. I made a spreadsheet of minimal gear I’d add to my registry, secondhand scores from Facebook Marketplace, and new items my husband and I would purchase. I truly went the “we’ll figure out the rest as we go” route rather than the “buy multiple types of everything and test them out” route.
I was so focussed on setting up for baby, attending my midwife appointments, and satisfying my endless cereal craving that I overlooked items meant for, well, me. I hadn’t thought about packing my hospital bag or prepping a postpartum care station. As I panic-read through forums, I decided to splurge on the Frida Labor and Delivery + Postpartum Recovery Kit. Every review said it was a treasure trove of self-care goodies: a nursing gown and no-slip socks for labor comfort, ice pads and perineal foam for postpartum healing, even disposable underwear to lighten the laundry load. It seemed well worth the $100 for a shortcut to stock items I’d use, right?
Well, while I used a few things from the kit, the contents didn’t live up to the hype. The disposable underwear, while comfortable, didn’t have built-in absorption. The icy pads were equally unabsorbent, and not as cooling as expected. The nurse put the hospital-provided socks on me before I could grab the ones from my kit. The witch hazel liners went unused, given how many the hospital provided.
But there was one item that outperformed its hospital counterpart, providing instant relief and easing those postpartum bathroom visits: the Frida Mom Upside Down Peri Bottle.
No one prepared me for the first post-delivery pee. I couldn’t feel my legs (thanks, epidural!), and was practically hanging on to the nurse to avoid falling. When I was done, I was handed a little squirt bottle to clean down there since toilet paper was a no-go. But it hardly did the job. The spray was minimal, and I couldn’t exactly bend my body to get a full washing.
That’s where the Frida Mom peri bottle stood out. It’s marketed as, “a bidet for your vajay,” and that’s not too far from the truth. Rather than a straight design, the Frida Mom’s bottle has a bent neck (i.e. upside down), which lets you point the stream right where you need it instead of letting it dribble down. The long neck gives you more control of your aim without contouring your sore body. It was also easier to squeeze, giving me more control of the flow. I noticed that the stream was much more forceful, but still gentle on the swollen, tender area. It wasn’t a shower-like washing, but it was enough to clear out the discharge and left me feeling relatively clean when I was finally home.
Even though the hospital provides a peri bottle, I’d rather pay $14 to upgrade to the Frida Mom Upside Down Peri Bottle. To be honest, I’d probably pay double. The Frida Labor and Delivery + Postpartum Recovery Kit may not have been $100 well spent, but it brought me to my postpartum MVP, so it wasn’t a total waste.
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