Midwifery Today Community

Just wanted to write something lively for the boards.  Had a prenatal with a mama of mine, she is expecting her 5th (#1, cs, the other 3, hbac's with me, all boys)  anyway, she had been having some back spasms and bh's and was really worried at 28 weeks if it was just a back injury or contractions so she asked me to check her. Her last baby was a few years ago so I haven't seen her yoni in a while.   Lately all my mama's have been primipara's and young. I was so excited to see pubic hair!  No one has any nowadays.  My mama cracked up, claiming 4 boys and pregnancy kept her form even thinking about trimming up!!  

Any one notice this trend?  I mean really, there is no pubic hair with the young girls anymore, none!!  Is it just because I live in a beach area or is this a trend all over?  Silly thing to wonder over but I sure have noticed it change over the years.  Remember the 70's? That was a time of hair!

BTW - mama was fine, it was a pulled muscle in her back, probably from lifting her 35 lb. 2.5 year old all day.  We stopped that.

Well, immediately my '60's folk music hippie brain started humming, "Where has all the pubic hair gone" to the tune of "Where have all the flowers gone."  Can you picture Peter, Paul, and Mary or perhaps Pete Seeger singing and strumming along?

I have actually not seen this in my area (of the country) because I'm in a pretty groovy area of the NC mountains where hairy (legs, pits, etc) mamas are as common place as the mamas who shave legs and pits.  I haven't encountered any baldies in my doula work but do encounter quite a big population of women who are pierced in places that seem to be very painful or have tats in what to me is an odd spot.

Although I'm old school and shave the spots that ladies were told to shave when I was growing up, the naked nether region is too weird for me from a philosophical standpoint of trying to look like a prepubescent girl and makes me a bit shuddery to think of a bald spot on a pregnant woman.

OK.  Now y'all can start ganging up on me and my old fashioned ways.   I'm going out on the bank to sing Kumbya.

 April,

This unfortunate phenomenon has even infiltrated my Old Order Mennonite population!!  Not a whole lot, but I'm occasionally suprised (shocked) to find no hair there!  One woman (a priimip) apologized when I did her first internal at our first prenatal visit (yes, I do internals on women who have never had one before); she said, "I'm sorry I didn't shave."  I said, "You don't HAVE to shave.  Most women don't.  It's totally up to you."  I wonder where the Mennonites get this?  They have no TV and don't read our magazines.  Thanks for a fun topic.  Joyce

This one IS really fun!!!  The pruient side of me has often wondered how common it is for women to shave down there, but the shy side kept me from asking.  :-)   I also feel its an odd phenomenon, really unatural.  I personally think trimming a bit is a good idea (if you're prone to more hairy-ness than usual and it gets a little WILD down there), but I'd never shave it all.  Even times when I have trimmed a bit too short, it gets all itchy and uncomfortable, and I rarely shave my bikini area unless I'm going swimming because I can't take the razor bumps.  I don't have time to be all itchy.  Like your client, my 4 kiddos keep me really practical, and that means no shaving the nether regions.   Trim yes, shave NO--not for me.  Really interesting about the Mennonite clients.

RobsGirl:

This one IS really fun!!!  The pruient side of me has often wondered how common it is for women to shave down there, but the shy side kept me from asking.  :-)   I also feel its an odd phenomenon, really unatural.  I personally think trimming a bit is a good idea (if you're prone to more hairy-ness than usual and it gets a little WILD down there), but I'd never shave it all.  Even times when I have trimmed a bit too short, it gets all itchy and uncomfortable, and I rarely shave my bikini area unless I'm going swimming because I can't take the razor bumps.  I don't have time to be all itchy.  Like your client, my 4 kiddos keep me really practical, and that means no shaving the nether regions.   Trim yes, shave NO--not for me.  Really interesting about the Mennonite clients.

2nd this and thats me as well.  Mean not shaving and at same time don't any of the other parts as well because somehow always ended up cutting myself for some reason or other.

Well, last couple years there has been a waxing explosion in my area and it seems like everyone is bald. And I mean bald.  I gave my husband a razor and the nod one time for his b-day present and I did not like the vulnerable feeling I got looking like a 12 year old.  Too weird for me.  I tend to like to sweep the doorway but leave the welcome mat, if you know what I mean. But I am in a bathing suit a lot as are most people here.

We could start a whole new thread on tats and piercings...I got a couple winners for sure!! (meaning ones I have seen, not me personally)

bab bad bad experiences with waxing, so I don't do that either.  I used to sugar my legs every once in a while and it is pretty awesome, but again, too little time, and my legs, because of nasty varicose veins, are unpresentable anyway, so there's no need.

We should do a thread on hairy men too.  I hear some women prefer their men smoothe...and some like them hairy. 

oh, manscaping is big here, lots of paddlers, oiled and hairless.... not sure about south of the board shorts but, I hear things. ..

Growing up, my dad always told me that real men have hair on their chests, so I guess I'm conditioned towards that preference.  :-)

This thread has me CRACKING UP because I was out to dinner with some girlfriends a couple weeks back and this very topic came up, except in reverse.  A couple of them were making fun of a mutual friend of theirs who DOESN'T shave, and I just sat there thinking "I'm not about to tell them at the dinner table that I keep it au naturel!"

I get comments every time in my childbirth classes when I show birth videos, since all the moms are not shaven in them.  One husband even snorted, "Geez, was this before the invention of the razor??"  Kinda makes me sad actually, since I just assume they are getting their impressions from the pornography/modeling industries.

I figure God put it there for a reason. 

Wow. My daddies usually comment that all the video dads have the Chester the Molester mustache but don't comment on the women's nether regions.  That's funny.  Maybe it depends on what part of the country you live in.  I hope I act nonchalant when I come across my first nudie patootie.

If I were one of your mama's and you said 'nudie patootie' while in labor I think I'd throw up on you!!

I'd throw up on myself if I said "nudie patootie" during a labor!  In fact, I'd probably throw up on myself if I talked much at all.  Ha!  Nudie patootie came just sort of rolled off my fingers (although we say "fangers" down here) . Nothing good rhymed with ... yoni, mons, pubic area.  Even better would have been cutie nudie patootie but it sounded pervy.  I don't believe I'd ever comment on anyone's pieces parts during a labor.  How awful would that be? 

You're right, the only comment I ever make is 'your yoni looks beautiful'.

I like the fangers thing, gonna use that!

 This thread is hilarious....