Got my new Naturalmamma cup today!
Yay, my new cup is here! After weeks of trying to decide on a new cup to replace my large Green Donna, I chose the Naturalmamma, mostly due to it's long length and good capacity and intersting stem, it was also very affordable. I have not used it or sterilized it yet. It came in a small white zipped polyester type back with a thin plastic like coating inside. The cup has a fairly strong rubbery odor which bothers me. Though it could have absorbed the smell from the bag it came in, but the bag doesn't smell as much as the cup. My silicone Green Donna never had an odor like this, but it came in a different kind of bag and a box. It's suppose to be hypo-allergenic silicone, which I hope means it's high-quality medical-grade silicone. Is this smell normal for some menstrual cups? The most surprising thing about this cup though, is how firm it is, well, in comparison with my only other cup, a Green Donna, which is meant to be like a Lunette, an apparently one of the firmer cups out there. However, I can report that the NM is a great deal stiffer than my GD! This could be a good thing, and I am glad I didn't go with Meluna's recommendation of a sport cup (they believed my GD like a Lunette, therefore they believed I needed a stiffer cup than even that, to stop the riding up, leaks etc.), as it could of been far to firm for me, if my NM is anything to go by, I couldn't really imagine them being firmer than this. It is possible, that my GD has gone a bit softer over time, I've been using it for about two years now, I do remember it being a lot more difficulty to insert when I first got it, due to it springing open before I got it inserted deep enough, but that could be more to do with inexperience. Comparing it to my GD, it's a very different shape. The GD is a bit wider at the rim, but tapers to a narrow point, while the NM is more bell shaped, and wider overall, and obviously much wider at the base. The grip rings are bigger and more prominent on the NM than my GD which I think could be better for me. Both cups are stiffest at the base, softest in middle, firm at the top and rim. However, as I've said, the NM is the much firmer, which could mean I have less chance of it leaking on removal, or when active. The airholes on the NM are smaller than on my GD, and there are four instead of two. The inside of my old GD is smooth, the NM is mostly smooth except for two raised measure lines, which hopefully won't mean extra cleaning. The texture of both feels pretty much the same, a kind of matt tacky feel, my GD feels slightly tackier though, lint and dust easily adheres to both. The stem on the NM is fairly short, the same length as my GD stem which has had the tip torn off (bad removal episode). The NM stem-tab is stiffer, but I don't yet see how it's wideness over the GD stem will make much difference, once inserted it may possibly be easier to locate and give me a firmer grasp, the tab stem on my GD is quite stretchy, so when pulling it doesn't always pull the cup down enough for me to grab the cup to release the seal, hence how I tore the stem and my insides one time! The NM did not come with much information about the product itself, nor does it have any cleaning instructions from the Naturalmamma company. My GD came with instructions that says 5-10 mins, so this would be probably fine for the NM too. Although, I tend to let mine boil for about 15-20mins.