Patent ID: 7438708

Claim:
A sanitary napkin having extensions, at least parts of which are to be folded back and fixed on an undergarment in use, the sanitary napkin comprising: a liquid-permeable topsheet disposed on one side of the sanitary napkin to cover at least a central region thereof; a backsheet; an absorbent layer disposed between the topsheet and the backsheet; and leakage preventing portions raised from laterally opposing side portions of the topsheet and extending in a longitudinal direction of the sanitary napkin, the extensions being located outside the leakage preventing portions to extend laterally outwardly and each provided with an outside reinforcing sheet in at least a portion of each of the extensions, wherein on each side of a longitudinal centerline, the sanitary napkin has a joint, a buffer region, and a flexible region in order from inside to outside, the joint is a location where the leakage preventing portion is fixed on the topsheet, the buffer region includes an inside reinforcing sheet, the flexible region is defined between an outwardly directed edge of the inside reinforcing sheet and an inwardly directed edge of the outside reinforcing sheet provided in the extension, wherein the inside reinforcing sheet comprises a fabric selected from the group consisting of spunbonded nonwoven fabrics and through-air bonded nonwoven fabrics; and wherein a Gurley stiffness of the buffer region is 2.5 to 9 times a Gurley stiffness of the flexible region, and a Gurley stiffness of the extension with the outside reinforcing sheet is 2.5 to 9 times the Gurley stiffness of the flexible region.