I highly recommend buying a real compression bandage instead. A maxi-pad is designed to keep a woman 'dry' so to speak. It does this by absorbing blood to keep it away from the body. It is the exact opposite of what you want. You want to trap the blood at the site of the wound so it can begin clotting and stopping the flow of blood. Using a maxi-pad when there are other alternatives, even a cotton shirt will do, is just stupid and will help kill your patient faster.
Be sure and apply to the wrong side of the pad not the absorbent side
You TAPE the pads firmly to the wound and as the pad expands, it actually gets tighter on the wound as the tape soon won’t allow much more room for expansion. The clotting factors in the blood that get into the pad are further squeezed and compressed into the wound. It’s all in
the way you tape the pad...tape too loosely and you have excess bleeding, tape snugly and the pad can’t expand beyond the limits of the taping. The maxi pads are much better than continued use of a tournequet as you have directed pressure at the site.