What To Do If You Leak On Your Period

Let's say that you've been busy all day, and you forgot to change your pad/tampon/moon cup/soft cup. Or maybe you slept on your back at night and woke up with blood leaking. (This may not be true for others, but if I don't sleep on my front during my period, I leak every night.) Anyway, for some reason, you leaked blood. What do you do?

1. Get upset. I don't really recommend this, but it seems to be the first thing that everyone (including me) does, so, go ahead. Get upset.
2. Calm down. This one is self explanatory.
3. If you're in a public place or with other people, get back home, or to wherever you're staying. If you're with friends who also experience periods, you can probably just say you have a period-related emergency and hurry off. If you're with people who are... inexperienced about periods, you may just need to say, "I have to go" and hurry away.
4. Assess the damage. See if blood leaked through all of your clothes, or if there's just a little blood.
5. Soak the bloodstained clothes in cold water. Don't use warm water. The warm water will set the blood into the clothes and cause bloodstains. Scrub the bloodstain with soap and keep rinsing it with cold water until it comes out. You should wash out the blood right away to avoid letting it set into your clothes.
6. Get new clothes. Your old clothes are going to be all wet by now, so you can't wear those. Get some new clothes.
7. Put in/on a new pad/tampon/moon cup/soft cup. You don't want to leak again.
8. Put on the new clothes.
9. Go do normal things again. But remember, don't forget to change your pad/tampon/moon cup/soft cup! (This is especially important for tampons; you can get Toxic Shock Syndrome if  you leave them in for too long.)

Want to avoid leaking blood at night? See Paige's post on Sleeping On Your Period.

Sources:

• http://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Blood-Stains
• Personal experience