Make your daughter ready for her first period

Discussions around menstruation have opened up, but there's still a long way to go. It's important for young girls to be aware of periods before their first one, advise experts.

According to a survey conducted by everteen for the Menstrual Hygiene Day, menstruation is no more a hush-hush topic.

The survey had participation from 2,400 women -- working women in the age group of 25-35 years -- from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

As many as 67.7 per cent of women believe that popular Bollywood movie made people talk about menstruation openly.

Experts say a girl must be prepared for their first period.

♦ The next generation should be that of the trailblazers who finally break the shackles and speak out freely about menstruation.

Make sure it's an impactful and an empowering one, for she might be the one who changes the way women perceive their periods. In doing so, she might just change the world!

♦ Leading brands that use blue ink to depict period blood are essentially attaching a message of shame to periods.

Let your daughter know that we bleed red, and that there's no need to be ashamed of it.

Periods should no longer be a secret between moms and daughters but can and should be discussedwith brothers and dads too.

♦ Tell your daughters how to use and change pads every 4-8 hours depending on the flow.

It's important to wrap it in a newspaper and dispose this in the bin rather than flushing it down.

♦ Tell her this is part of a normal growing up process. There may be cramps, backache, thigh pain and headaches that may happen.

You should opt for herbal period pain patches that discreetly yet effectively soothe the cramps. Exercising may also help to take care of all this.

♦ Comfort her by telling not be scared of 'leaking' and if it happens, she can just throw that underwear panty away and use a fresh one.

Also, apprise her that other girls in her class are also going through similar changes and they can watch each other's backs.