Absorbent article

An absorbent article substantially symmetric about a longitudinal center line thereof and comprising:

• a longitudinal direction and a transverse direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction;
• a ventral sheet member and a dorsal sheet member extending in parallel to each other in the transverse direction;
• and
• a crotch sheet member extending in the longitudinal direction and joined to said ventral sheet member and said dorsal sheet member so as to connect said ventral and dorsal sheet members to each other wherein said crotch sheet member has a transverse dimension smaller than those of said ventral and dorsal sheet members, said absorbent article being characterized in that:
• said ventral sheet member and said dorsal sheet member are provided with waist elastic members bonded thereto under tension in the transverse direction;
• at least a region of said ventral sheet member in which said waist elastic members are present and said crotch sheet member overlap each other;
• opposite side edges extending in the longitudinal direction on both sides of said crotch sheet member are parallel to each other at least when the absorbent article is flatly developed;
• and
• an apparent width of said crotch sheet member as measured in the transverse direction after said waist elastic members have been left contract and thereby said crotch sheet member has been left shrink together with said ventral sheet member and said dorsal sheet member is larger on a border line with said dorsal sheet member than on a border line with said ventral sheet member.

An absorbent article having a height direction, a longitudinal direction and a circumferential direction and comprising belt members annularly defining a front waist region and a rear waist region in said circumferential direction and a liquid-absorbent structure defining a crotch region extending between said front and rear waist regions wherein said belt members are provided with waist contractile means biasing said belt members to shrink in said circumferential direction, said absorbent article being characterized in that:

• said liquid-absorbent structure has first and second ends opposed to and spaced from each other in said longitudinal direction wherein an outer surface of said first end overlaps an inner surface of said front belt section in said front waist region to define a first overlapping region and an outer surface of said second end overlaps an inner surface of said belt section in said rear waist region to define a second overlapping region;
• said waist contractile means extend partially across at least one of said first overlapping region and said second overlapping region;
• and
• said liquid-absorbent structure is joined to said belt members at least in said first overlapping region or said second overlapping regions by means of joint zones extending in said height direction and arranged intermittently in said circumferential direction and a first joint-free zones defined between each pair of adjacent said joint zones define vent channels allowing said crotch region to fluid-communicate with said front and rear waist regions.