To think the midwife will not give two hoots about my bikini line?

[IneedAsockamnesty]

I'm going into hospital in just over a week to be induced, I can not see my bikini line and am disinclined to brandish a razor and any sharp bladed object near something I cannot see.

So will the midwife even notice let alone care?

I'm only 17 weeks pregnant and already worrying about this issue. Personally I find pubes a bit grim - I certainly don't go bald but I do keep things very tidy and minimal. I just feel really uncomfortable if I'm 'unkempt', just hairy and horrible. I also do it for sex reasons, in my opinion au natural pubic hair isn't very nice to look at and I certainly wouldn't want to think of my husband having to come face to face with my genitals if they weren't shaved to some degree. I certainly wouldn't want a mouthful of his pubes so I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want a mouthful of mine either

I don't how I will overcome the issue when I get much bigger! I'm not sure I like the idea of my hubby doing it I envisage it being a blood bath...

brithas Are you nuts? I can assure you that I have regular smears and nobody laughs at me. Apart from anything else, it's under a blanket. Cancer is no joke, have your smears.

the hospital where i had ds1 had a bidet which i used. by the time i had the next four it was at the new hospital and they didnt have bidets.

didnt have a shower in the houses we had the first three at. just those crappy attach to the taps thingies.

but massive hastle having a shower each time yoy need a wee, for me anyway as my eczema means mousturising and using emollients when i shower and then i have to wait for it to soak in before i get dressed...

a jug of warm water worked fine to stop stinging and freshen up etc.

yes there is more pressure in young people than ever before re pubes etc but many of us choose to trim purely for practical/comfort reasons.

Haven't read all the posts but I know a midwife and no, they don't care! Don't worry about it and good luck for your induction :).

of course she won't care too hoots.

as for laughing behind your back!!!

trust me there's far far funnier things occurring in hospitals than a few pubes.

And 20 years ago my mum convinced me they shaved you as well she also jibbed on with some rubbish about enemas, frightened the life out of me when I had the eldest sock returner COW.

I think I broke the land speed record when they did that to me thirty years ago...

You lot have it easy nowadays...

(Ducks and runs)

It's completely up to you! It might be advisable to give them a trim incase you need stitches. Don't worry about it, hope all goes well

"Personally I find pubes a bit grim - I certainly don't go bald but I do keep things very tidy and minimal. I just feel really uncomfortable if I'm 'unkempt', just hairy and horrible.. in my opinion au natural pubic hair isn't very nice to look at"

^ these are the sort of comments that I find depressing. Where do people get these views from? What influences them to think that looking artificial is the only way?

How is it any difference to getting our hair cut or plucking our eyebrows or shaving our legs?? Hair control is hair control. Why should we care less just because it is our pubic hair?

Exactly writer - I mean, I cut my nails for hygiene and comfort reasons- and they are just natural keratin - what's the difference with pubes?

No, according to my daughter and my daughter in law, there's no need to remove your bush these enlightened times. When I gave birth (in 1968 and 1970) a shave was compulsory and done by the hospital, along with an enema. AND, my first birth, an episiotomy was none negotiable - EVERYONE got sliced, for the midwives' convenience so things would move quickly. And they were pretty handy with inducing birth, so that deliveries could be pretty well in 'office hours'.

Thank god times have changed.

"catching against pants material when you're walking, getting caught in your jeans zip, catching clots of period blood and locchia (no I don't have a shower or bath after every piss) not to mention thrush - a particularly attractive side effect of being pregnant."

Never had any of those problems. Maybe you are much more hirsuit than me. Besides, I wear pants under my jeans, and not Bridget Jones ones either

"How is it any difference to getting our hair cut or plucking our eyebrows or shaving our legs?? Hair control is hair control. Why should we care less just because it is our pubic hair?"

Because they are on public display all the time.

I didn't trim with ds2 and the midwife did comment that she'd need to take off a bit of hair to stitch the tear.

However this was said in a completely matter of fact no-judgement sort of way.

Lets face it, she'd had her hand up my fanjo an hour earlier. A bit late to be about someone commenting on removing some pubes.

Anyway, how's a midwife doing a wee trim if required any more mortifying than a beautician getting an eyeful of your purple pregnancy labia? Both have presumably seen all sorts in their time.

I am serious - there's near 150 posts here and the vast majority are from reasonable woman saying that pubic hair in the state mine is in disgusts them. It follows that the nurses that do smear most likely would find it disgusting and I, with my already completely non- existent body confidence, couldn't cope with that. I'm not saying I'm right but that's how I feel.

I agree with grobags and all the other shaving refuseniks that this is deeply depressing.

All the shavers and trimmers sound completely INSANE to me. It weirds me out that ANYONE would find completely normal and healthy pubic hair worthy of comment or 'giggling'. In fact it just horrifies me that removing pubic hair has become the social norm at all.

Why are women trying to make their cunts look as if they belong to pre-pubescent children? It's not right...

Why are heavily pregnant women prepared to mutilate themselves with cut labia and chemical burns to achieve this 'look'.... WTF is THAT all about?

Surely we should just stop this madness. If men do not like the look of an unshaved fanjo (which is NOT unhygienic in any way), shouldn't we tell them to take a running jump and stop perving over exploitative porn?

We shouldn't be letting ourselves get sucked in by the image that's been generated by the porn-purveyors that are rubbing their hands/dicks all the way to the bank?

The answer - just don't DO IT!!!!

Excellent post heartichoke.

"It follows that the nurses that do smear most likely would find it disgusting"

Bruthas that isn't my impression at all. Of all the professionals that have posted on here nearly all of them have said that they couldn't give two hoots.

bunbaker - so you are saying we should preen ourselves if the areas are on display I.e we should do it because we shouldn't expose others to our natural body hair?

Why can't we keep our pubes tidy because we want to do it for ourselves? I don't do any 'preening' purely for the sake of others, but because I like to comfortable and happy within myself and that includes trimming my public area. Also, that area is on my display to my husband quite frequently or is he not as important as Joe public??

Mid you, even when I haven't been sexually active in the past I still always keep myself trim and tidy because that's just what I like as my own personal taste, and that is what matters at the end of the day. There is no right or wrong about pubic hair upkeep but everyone has different views and people will just do what they feel comfortable with.

No, I'm not. I just don't think there is a direct comparison between keeping private and public parts of the body tidy and groomed and was justifying why most women who shave their legs may not extend their grooming elsewhere.

But writerwannabe, what is it that determines that you want to do it 'for yourself'? Why are you only 'happy with' yourself when you trim your pubes?

It's because it makes us comfortable to conform to what are considered society's 'norms'. As humans, we are social creatures, and we don't want to stand out, so we adjust our thinking of what's right to fit with what we perceive to be 'normal' in our society.

Instead, in this case, we should be examining very closely WHERE this norm is coming from, rather than conforming to it blindly.

Still doing mine at 26 weeks. I lay on my back on a towel on the bed. Been doing it so long i don't need to see

More concerned about my feet! I like to Ped-Egg my heels at least once a week and keep my nails polished nicely and i've been having problems getting down to them. Contorting myself to do my feet has proved harder than shaving the fanjo.

I'm just grateful that I'm very fair so can get away with not shaving my legs perhaps as often they need doing Leg shaving has to be the most ball-achey form of shaving....why do knee areas have to be so difficult?

I had to go to A&E a few months ago and the Doctors needed access to my legs which I hadn't shaved for some time - I was mortified! I tried to make a joke out of it but it failed miserably. I'm pretty sure they didn't care but I still felt

heartichoke - I just don't find wild pubic hair attractive to look at. And like others have said, for practical reasons it is just easier when the area is kept tidy, especially during periods. I stand by my reasons in terms of my sex life too

It's no difference to me not liking it when my hubby goes through phases of growing a beard - I just think it looks untidy. Something's just look better when there is less hair on them

bruthas young women who are in the habit of grooming are saying that they are in the habit of grooming so it feels weird to stop.

Older women like me who have never groomed in our lives are keeping stumm as it feels like TMI.

All the professionals are saying they couldn't give a flying fuck.

And anyone who has had cancer is going to tell you that even if you have a bad half hour from irrational fears doing it, body confidence issues are trivial compared to dying from cancer. We can all be sympathetic to irrational fear and low self esteem, but sometimes we are not doing you any favours by saying, ooh, yes, that's a valid reason for not getting checked out. It's not. I faint at the sight of blood. In my GP surgery I am known as "the lady who can faint lying down". I still have the tests done that I have to.

W may nt be able to persuade you that all professionals don't care. Your body confidence issues are irrational anyway, we understand that. You have to man up and do it anyway.