Saturday 5 February 2011

Ignorant Claudia - weekly question

If you believed that this maternity blog was too personal, well, you are about to choke on your herbal tea! I don't expect much comments (and I truly understand) but if I could get some guidance that would be very appreciated.

When you get pregnant, it is common to have a belly. And it gets bigger and bigger ever week. At a certain point, you can't see your feet (funny), your knees (annoying), your thighs (bad) and your pubic area (pathetic)! It is difficult enough to feel sexy when you gained 40lb so the least that you can do is to look decent in the last part that I mentioned. The thing is : you can't see the damn thing anymore!!! Ok, this is not the end of the world!

However, this made me think about the big day. I know that shaving for birth used to be something that nurses did to you when you arrived at the hospital. Luckily, it is not the case anymore (can you say awkward) but I read that it is getting very common for pregnant ladies to get a bikini or a Brazilian wax prior to give birth.

Fine, but how does it work? Should I write in my birth plan: getting my first contractions, going to the spa for a wax and after calling my doula? Or should I consider a simple trim to avoid the itchy growing back phase of a wax...you know, after a small pumpkin came out of my vagina! Or maybe I should just channel the inner hippie in me and go au naturel?

note: I like to include pictures with my posts but for everybody's sake I will skip it this time!

20 comments:

Leslie Mae said...

I had a similar situation when I was pregnant, and I opted for the Brazilian. If you go into the hospital and the doctor deems any medical procedure for that...let's say..."region" - they may shave you right then and there. I could not bear the idea of being bruised, stretched, potentially torn then stitched AND itchy. I went to a high end spa, told them I was 9 months pregnant and that I needed someone really good at their job. (Because it can also be a very painful procedure). However, I thought - if I can't handle a Brazilian can I really handle birth? In the end, the waxing pain wasn't awful.

No regrets.

Stacy said...

totally unnecessary!

Anne said...

Thanks a lot for your "Ignorant Claudia" questions - they will be so useful to me in due time!

Ana said...

Thank goodness shaving is no longer the norm. As you say, it will be bad enough feeling stretched and sore.

I haven't heard of anyone being shaved for any procedure and I can't see why you'd need to medically (it might be worth asking actually). Having said that, if I were to do it, I'd go for a Brazillian. After all there's no point just tidying up round the edges! And don't forget that regrowth will always be less scratchy than shaver stubble, so it might not be that bad.

190.arch said...

It could be a nice thing if you have time to plan a spa date for getting "a nice job" before birth : )
I didn't have time, it wasn't in my mind really because I had some complications that worried me very much my last 4 pregnancy weeks, but I can tell you is a good thing to get rid of some pubic hair before, better if done by a professional in a nice way. When you are in the labor room, and you didn't have time, you didn't know or whatever, they will do it anyway.
You must know that your itchy growing hair could be the minor incovenience you can experience after giving birth. If you nurse, your nipples will be in pain all the time during the first weeks, maybe you'll need an episiotomy and it could be very annoying, worse than itchy hair growing...
Good luck! : )

Anonymous said...

Why? The birth is for you and your baby. You shall feel comfortable before and during birth, not the others who are involved.

Anonymous said...

Well.... I too wanted to get a Brazilian before the big push but at the end I was so big and heavy and hardly could move that I decided that if nurses and doctors had never seen some pubic hair then well...that was their problem! I will tell you this though..pubic hair is the least of your concern during birth. Trust me. Other things come out of you that makes a bit of hair seem so innocent! Can you spell p-o-o-h? And yes, doctors and nurses have seen it all! Good luck!

alyson said...

I always thought I'd trim. I think it'd just make me personally feel a little "fresher". I even mentioned to my husband the other day that I might need his assistance once I can't see down there anymore. ;)

peanut said...

I asked my aesthetician about this once (I get a brazilian waxing regularly and we've been trying for ages so it's been on my mind). She told me there's nothing unusual about a pregnant woman coming in for a waxing in her last month. Yes, waxing hurts. But not that much and not for more than a second or two.

I've never really considered it as being for the doctor or nurses' benefit (in fact I always feel a little embarrassed having the doctor know what style of waxing I get) but more for a clean feeling and (I'm totally guessing) easier cleaning later on.

Lina said...

Don't do the brazilian it will itch when it grows back and you will be to tierd to be bodered with that. just trim it and that will be ok. I got pregant when you first placed the subject a long time ago, now I have a 15 month old girl, I read your blog and really like it although I never comment but I wanted to say from my experience the hardest part was lactation, the rest just kind of falls into place you either use disposables or cotton etc but what yo do every 3 hours or less is feed them so my advise would be get some preparation because I didn't and kind of failed on breast feeding. Good luck!

mjb said...

I trimmed myself, scary when you can't see down there, but I would use a mirror to check my results when I got out of the shower. I would've gotten the Brazilian if it wasn't so expensive.

jamie said...

i have gotten to this point and have been thinking about it also.

i dont think i want to deal with the itchy growing back.

my husband seems confidant that he will be able to help. ;)

katja said...

Hi there
I'm not pregnant and don't have kids (yet). So the only thing I can tell you is my experience with brazilian waxing. For me, it doesn't really hurt when its done. But what I like the Brazilian most for, is that it actually doesn't itch when it grows back. I used to just shave myself and the itching when the stuff grew again annoyed me so much.
But as I said, I'm not pregnant and I've never given birth. I think you should just do whatever you feel most comfortable with.
Wishing you all the best!
(I have been following your blog for a while now, and I'm sure I'll come back to it if I get pregnant.)

Renae said...

I suspect I'll just be trimming. I couldn't put myself through the pain of a wax for no real gain!

Cal's mum said...

I know a few people who ended up with C sections and none of them needed to be shaved as either the cut wasn't low enough or they were...shall we say..neat enough. I think most people are for where they usually cut. So I think all you would probably need is a wee trim but that's only for your own sake rather than anyone else.

Tibi said...

Hilarious!! I had my last baby at St Mary’s hospital, in Cote-Des-Neiges and they definitely did not shave me or did not show any intentions of doing it.
But, I already had asked the same questions to some friends who have had experiences like this here in Montreal, so I keep my self “short” close to the due date. How? My husband was my coiffeur!!

Wish you luck!

Tibi

Carolyn Margaret said...

Hello, hello!
Had to come have a read when I saw one of Ella's dolls on your flickr!
I have two little (well not so little) monkeys! and both times I had a wax and a pedicure at 38 weeks (just a french not bazillion) and it was great nothing like feeling all trim and having pretty toes when you finally get to see them again! It won't matter to anyone else in the room but if it makes Momma happy that is all that matters!!!
Best
Carolyn

Lisa said...

you are cracking me up

natural

you sooooooo will not care when the baboo comes out and neither does your husband and least of all your doula. You will thank me later that you saved the cash of a brazilian and were able to buy good pain meds to manage having channel a small pumpkin through your crotch-a-torial area.

Carolee Beckham said...

Claudia-

your belly photo is so great! :) Thanks for commenting on my blog so that I could find yours and read your perspective on pregnancy and childbirth. i also love your frankness about the waxing/shaving. i personally think that i'll just go for the Brazilian. i started to get them before i got married and have loved them since.

oh and good to see that you liked the Business of Being Born. One of our favorite documentaries too!

The Franglaise said...

Claudia, you just made me laugh out loud. I love your honestly in the weekly ingnorant Claudia posts!

I remember thinking about all that before giving birth and my advice would be to get a wax but don't wait too long to do it. That's what I wanted but in my last few weeks of pregnancy I was huge and had contractions so I could no longer move. Besides, I felt really uncomfortable about showing my body to anyone who wasn't a midwife at that time. So in the end, I gave birth with a semi au naturel (mais c'etait du dangerous business de faire ca avec un énorme bidon!)!