[...] I Hope Not All L&D Nurses Think Like This [...]

[...] birth experiences – the kind where laboring women are pushed around by arrogant doctors and high-handed l&d nurses – “birth [...]

It’s great to know that this nurse, and evidently her peers, are focused on the truly important aspects of childbirth, like pubic hair.

She and anyone else with her opinion can kiss my ass. I don’t shave anywhere anytime. I’m a grown woman. Is she?

You nailed it regarding the grooming advice @@. And more power to you Gretchen!

I’m sorry, I could barely see my belly button by the time I gave birth to my daughter. It sounds downright dangerous and ridiculous to take a pair of shears to that region when you are basically cutting blind. One of my best friends is an OBGYN, and she seemed more shocked at the women who were super trimmed/shaved down there. I had a hairy, natural child-birth, and my nurse was a dream — so helpful and kind, yet firm when I started to meltdown at the pushing stage. I want to believe the woman from this article is an anomaly.

I got a Brazilian wax at 8 months. I was going on a “babymoon” and a few days before we spent the night at my in-laws’ who have a full-length mirror outside their shower. I noticed that I was a little primate-ish, and asked my husband what he thought. Without saying a word, he went into his dad’s closet and pulled out a Playboy from 1973. After I peed myself from laughing, I decided to tame the beast, at least for the sake of the people who would have to see me in a bathing suit. But never in a million years would I have considered even shaving my legs for my L&D nurse, much less my ‘bottom’, as she kept calling it. (Really? You can’t even say the word ‘vagina’ and you want me to trim it for you? Ugh.)

I agree with Delivia on the bathing part. Come on, even when you do not have a schedule C-section or induced labor, there is plenty of time between the first and second stages of labor to take a shower.
Now on the grooming, I did shave completely down there, as a favor to myself. Vaginal births are very messy during and after so I knew I was not going to stand the mess after, let alone with an untammed beast (like JBoogie calls it) down there.
Now, unless you educate yourself, you cannot have a birth plan, since research will show you that births are not predictable in any way, not even for the 30 years experienced OB-GYN. Educating yourself will make let streesful for the already nervous mother-to-be to make decisions when a situation arrives.
Now, about the epidural, I always wait until the pain is really bad (which does not make any sense because that means I am almost to the end of the second stage) but I think that it should be up to the woman to decide when she wants the epidural (unless it is too late to have one).

“That sounds like cutting off your pubes to spite you vag to me.”

Haaaaaaaaaaaa!!! I love that.

I agree w/ MamaK. The original article isn’t malicious. It’s just one person’s preference.

Nicely put, GP! Thanks for saying it!

OK, so coming late into the fray here, but you know I have to say something.
I’m an L&D nurse (and yes, damn proud of it! although I am also a mother and a midwifery student) and the fact of the matter is, we are human – just like everyone else here. And just like in any other job, there are always going to be some good eggs and some bad ones. If you don’t want to risk dealing with the cranky nurse on the floor, have a homebirth! It’s a great option, really.
Now, I have to say, like MamaK, I went back and read the original article and it certainly wasn’t as offensive as it was made out to be. The shaving bit? Meh. I have never met anyone who cares. The B.O. thing – um yeah, nobody likes that! But of course, birth is messy messy business and we deal with a lot more than sweat (oh yes, and everybody poops – nobody cares ladies!)

The fact of the matter is we nurses are actually there to help. We (most of us at least) love our jobs and want to do right by women as best as possible in a hostile environment. We don’t set the hospital policies, but we are the ones that have to enforce them. The venom being spewed at nurses here is really hurtful and depressing. We are highly trained clinical professionals with years of schooling and hundreds of births under our belts. We have a great deal to offer to those open to listening. Many women come into the hospital though on the offensive and it makes no ones experience (nurse or mother) any better.

LOL’d at Huh’s “spite your vag” comment. The respectful “you’re there to serve me” comment also made me laugh. But for other reasons.

Huh? how do you get stubble in your vagina? That is impossible. Second, no itch and discomfort from stubble if you give yourself proper maintenance but if you ever hate your hairy “vagina” :), you can always cut off your pubes to spite it I guess you can ask Manjari, how to do it, since she loves it :)

So she had the courage to say it. It’s one of the many comments that go around and just because you don’t hear them doesn’t mean they aren’t being said. Its a good thing someone is being honest about it and letting the public know. Go ahead and show up ungroomed head to toe and be the joke of the day. It’s sad, but it happens I see it every day.