Vault: Do pregnant women shave before giving birth?

Summary

The Bert Show Podcast: "Vault: Do Pregnant Women Shave Before Giving Birth?"

Release Date: June 9, 2026
Hosts/Cast: Bert, Kristin, Abby, Cassie, Tommy & The Bert Show Cast
Episode Focus: Pregnancy, personal grooming, and birth preparation

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Episode Overview

This episode takes a humorous yet honest look at the question: Do pregnant women shave before giving birth? Spurred by an email from a listener nearing her due date, the Bert Show team and their audience deep-dive into the nuances, anxieties, and practical realities of grooming "down there" in late pregnancy. Through candid debates, listener calls, and a signature blend of comedy and real talk, the show explores everything from societal pressures to couple’s boundaries, and even the role of doctors and hospital staff in the decision.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Gynecological Appointment Preparations

• The episode opens with a recap of a previous conversation about how women prepare for their annual gynecological exams, noting universal rituals like folding underwear under clothes and matching bra and panties—even down to choosing special shoes.
• Quote (Bert, 01:14): “All of them saying that they do indeed fold their underwear and put it underneath their jeans when they’re in the gyno’s office. That's like universal. Everybody does that.”

2. Listener Email Sparks the Debate (02:31)

• Claire's Dilemma: With three weeks until her due date and no visual access to her own anatomy, Claire wants advice: “Do pregnant women feel the need to be clean shaven for birth, or just let it grow?”

3. Is it Even Possible to Shave Late in Pregnancy?

• The team discusses physical limitations—can’t see, can’t reach—which leads to the notion that a partner (most often, the husband) may have to help. Responses are mixed, with humor injected about trust and intimacy levels.
  • Co-host (03:23): “She’s got to have somebody else do it for her. Because I don't even think she's possible. Literally, she can’t see it.”

4. To Shave or Not To Shave: Is There a “Right” Choice?

• While some co-hosts express a preference for keeping some hair ("a triangle") for comfort or aesthetics, others challenge the rationale.
  • Co-host (04:04): “I think you gotta have a triangle because… I don’t know, just having nothing there doesn’t—it just doesn’t seem right to me.”
  • Bert’s Rebuttal (04:26): “Well, then in using your analogy, then you should never be like that because a grown man would never make love to a little girl. So if you have nothing there, you’re using the same reasoning.”

5. Doctor and Nurse Opinions (05:06)

• The group speculates whether doctors care about grooming habits. Listeners call in to share experiences—some wanting the area clean for ‘health reasons’; others saying it shouldn’t matter.
  • Caller Krista (05:16): “Just for health reasons…I mean, it’s not like the camera is going to be down there looking, but it does need to come off, the whole thing, because you’re going to have nurses, doctors…you don’t want to be all exposed like, you know, really like a bush.”
• Practical advice: do any grooming a couple weeks before the due date because regrowth takes time.

6. Realities of DIY, Partner-Assisted, and Professional Grooming (06:54)

• Tracy (cast or guest) explains that by the last weeks, self-grooming is nearly impossible, and laser hair removal is a no-go while pregnant.
  • Tracy (07:06): “Once you get that far along, like, there’s…nothing you can do. You can’t reach to. I couldn’t even see my feet. So you certainly can't see there.”
• Some recommend professional waxing (07:33), sharing that husbands may be hesitant or uncomfortable helping.

7. Comfort Levels, Trust, and Relationship Boundaries

• Significant laughter and banter around who would or wouldn’t be able to help a partner shave. Some would only trust themselves, others wouldn’t want the responsibility. The “Operation” board game analogy draws laughs.
  • Co-host (09:50): “Be like that game Operation.”
  • Bert (09:54): “Yeah, but my nose really would light up.”

8. Listener Stories: Impressive Skills & Awkward Anecdotes

• Some listeners describe blind shaving skills developed over time.
  • Caller Nick (10:02): “She’s been doing it for so long, she never even had to look.”
  • Co-host (10:13): “She could do it blindly. Now, that is a pro.”
• Others share bizarre stories about friends helping each other or awkward grooming scenarios, amplifying both the humor and the point that everyone’s experience is different.

9. Hospital Practices: Staff May Step In

• A listener (Leslie) reports some hospitals actually shave you before birth if necessary—contrary to popular belief that it’s solely on the patient.
  • Caller Leslie (12:13): “They came in actually with an electric one…So I guess it does depend on the doctor and maybe the hospital guidelines, because they actually come in to do that for me.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Bert, on couples' boundaries (09:20):
  “You’re gonna be really surprised by the zones you’ll venture into in a couple of years.”
• On trust and fear (09:23):
  “If somebody was getting close to my area with a razor, I would be so jerky that I would end up hurting myself, even if they weren’t even bad at what they were doing.”
• Comic reference (09:50):
  “Be like that game Operation.”
• On hospital intervention (12:13):
  “They came in actually with an electric one … So I guess it does depend on the doctor and maybe the hospital guidelines, because they actually come in to do that for me.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:14 – 02:31: Recap of gynecologist prep, listener rituals, and email introduction
• 02:31 – 04:05: Can late-pregnancy women shave? Should a partner help?
• 04:05 – 05:02: Debates about grooming preferences and what seems “appropriate”
• 05:13 – 06:08: Listener call-ins: health reasons, practical timing, and spousal support
• 06:13 – 07:29: Tracy’s advice: Pre-pregnancy hair removal, waxing, and pregnancy limitations
• 07:32 – 08:26: Husband and friend boundaries; comfort zones and trust issues
• 09:10 – 10:20: Listener stories: Blind-shaving expertise and more
• 12:10 – 12:36: Hospitals sometimes shave patients before birth

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Recap & Takeaways

• There is no universal rule: Some women feel strongly about being groomed before birth due to comfort, hygiene, or confidence, while others don’t.
• Physical limitations abound: Most cannot self-shave late in pregnancy; partners or professionals may need to help.
• Relationship comfort levels matter: Some couples are at ease with intimate assistance, while many prefer not to cross that boundary.
• Doctors, nurses, and hospitals generally do not care—but may shave patients if necessary.
• It’s all about personal choice: The episode ultimately celebrates the variety of approaches, ridiculing the notion that there’s a single “right” way.

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Final Thought

The Bert Show approaches this taboo-yet-common question with warmth, laughter, and surprising depth. Whether you’re a mom-to-be, a supportive partner, or just love honest conversation, this episode reminds listeners that a sense of humor and a bit of empathy go a long way—especially when life gets personal.

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For more relatable, uproarious, and authentic talk, tune in to the next episode of The Bert Show.

Transcript

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[Host/Burt]

Apply the Birch show so this is an email I got yesterday after we got done talking about the the preparation for your gynecological examination. I got a bunch of emails yesterday from women, mostly agreeing on everything you guys said. Okay, that all of them saying that they do indeed fold their underwear and put it underneath their jeans when they're in the gyno's office. That's like universal. Everybody does that.

[Co-host/Contributor]

What if somebody hacked in your email etiquette but just yesterday and all they saw were healthy trim entries and gynecological reports? That's all they got. And they would have to try to determine what you do for a living based on that.

[Host/Burt]

There were some emails that, that agreed that women do match the bra with the underwear for their gynecologist. Even if they're women.

[Co-host/Contributor]

That doesn't make any sense.

[Host/Burt]

There was one woman that says she picks out her best shoes to go.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Really?

[Host/Burt]

For whatever reason. Yeah, she said she just Gets dressed up. And the. The analogy that we use that some of you get ready more for your exam than you do a first date, she said, is absolutely true. She gets not a new dress, but she'll put on a really nice dress, she'll put on the matching underwear, she puts on her best shoes. And she doesn't know why she does it, but she feels like she's gotta dress up for the Gyna.

[Co-host/Contributor]

That's hilarious.

[Host/Burt]

So based on that conversation spawned this email. Burt show. I heard this segment when women called in and told you about how they prepare themselves for their annual exam with their gynecologists. One of you on the show briefly mentioned something that I've been struggling with for a few weeks now. My due date is three weeks away. I haven't visually seen my vagina in months, and I can barely get my hands down there for daily operations. I would like to be clean shaven for the birth, but I'm not even sure if it's possible. Can you ask the Burch show community if they felt the need to be clean shaven during the birth or did women just let it grow? I'd rather deal with that after she's born. And that's from Claire. We did get into this a little bit yesterday.

[Co-host/Contributor]

We didn't. I mean, we were joking about it,

[Host/Burt]

but do you shave or do you not? And is it even possible she's got

[Co-host/Contributor]

to have somebody else do it for

[Host/Burt]

her Because I don't even think she's possible.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Literally, she can't see it.

[Host/Burt]

Right.

[Co-host/Contributor]

She can't reach. She could hurt herself, which would be worse to do a couple weeks. So it depends. Can she ask her husband to do it or not? Is she close enough with her husband? Would you do that for your wife?

Any guy friend?

[Host/Burt]

Of course.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Yeah.

[Host/Burt]

Yeah, for sure. I've done. Yeah, Yeah. I told you. When Stacy was pregnant, she asked me to look in a different place and I had to.

[Caller/Listener]

You gotta do what you gotta do.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Gotta do what you gotta do. Exactly. So I would say ask her husband to do it and take it completely off. No, I would just say leave a little bit. I think you gotta have a triangle because.

Leave a little bit.

[Host/Burt]

Why a triangle?

[Co-host/Contributor]

Something. Because a woman, like birthing a baby, I don't know, just having nothing there doesn't. I don't know, it just doesn't seem right to me. Why doesn't seem like womanly? It looks.

Well, then why don't you just go on?

Because you look like a little girl when you.

Well, then why don't you just go on full on Dad's penthouse?

[Host/Burt]

Well, then in using your analogy, then you should never be like that because a grown man would never make love to a little girl. So if you have nothing there, you're using the same reasoning.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Not really. There's something different about it when you're birthing a baby. I don't know why. Yeah, see, I don't get Tracy.

[Host/Burt]

Get Tracy down here. Didn't she struggle with this for a while?

[Co-host/Contributor]

Somebody else get her down here. I ain't asking her to come down for that.

[Host/Burt]

Hey, Brandon, when you're done at the coffee machine.

[Caller/Listener]

Yeah.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Hey, Tracy Burcho needs to talk to you about your.

See, I don't get it. Shaven or not, I mean, it doesn't matter to me if you're birthing a baby.

[Host/Burt]

It's just a baby.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Something is weird to me about that. I don't see the weirdness.

[Host/Burt]

I don't think the doctors care. Maybe we'll find one. Or maybe it cares either way. Good morning, Krista, you're on Q100.

[Caller/Listener]

Hey, love you guys.

[Host/Burt]

Thank you. Claire here wants to know.

[Caller/Listener]

I mean, seriously, just for health reasons. I mean, it's not like for Jen, it's not like the camera is going to be down there looking, but it does need to come off the whole thing because everybody. You're going to have nurses, doctors. You know, you may be out and you don't want to be all exposed like, you know, really like a bush, so.

[Co-host/Contributor]

I hear you on that one.

[Caller/Listener]

Yeah, I'm a mother of two. It needs to come off before, you know, for the birth.

[Host/Burt]

Well, and how far in advance do you do that?

[Caller/Listener]

Because how far is she?

[Host/Burt]

She said she's got three weeks left.

[Caller/Listener]

Oh, yeah, she can. She could do it probably next week. It's not gonna. Because it's gonna take time to grow back, but at least, you know, within the next couple of weeks, it needs to come off. If she can't get down there to do it some, you know, her husband can do it for her.

[Host/Burt]

That's pretty much what you said too, right?

[Co-host/Contributor]

Yeah.

[Host/Burt]

Okay, thank you.

[Co-host/Contributor]

I just.

[Caller/Listener]

I don't know why.

[Co-host/Contributor]

I feel like there's a weird thing with that, but to me, I don't know.

Tracy gets on the radio once every three weeks and she's thrilled that. Here's why we've called her in studio.

[Host/Burt]

How you doing, Trace?

[Caller/Listener]

I'm great. How are you guys?

[Co-host/Contributor]

They just think I'm crazy for thinking that. So I was like, gonna ask you to come down and back me up.

Well, I don't think you're crazy. I don't disagree. But I think Burt made a valid point that it's something that you would want. If that's the way you feel, then it's something you would want all the time.

I don't know. It seems more. I don't know. It's very difficult to talk about it on the radio without, like, completely crossing the line.

[Caller/Listener]

Yeah, I'm not gonna discuss how I am down there. All I'm gonna say is call 77039, image.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Well, I think you just did.

[Caller/Listener]

Before you get pregnant, did you struggle with the idea?

[Host/Burt]

Because I assume that there is a point of no return. I mean, she said there's three weeks left. You can't really see what you're doing down there. So you really have to. If you want to do it yourself, you got to make that decision well in advance.

[Caller/Listener]

I mean, if you haven't prepared for that in advance. Yeah. Once you get that far along, like, there's. There's nothing you can do. You can't reach to. I couldn't even see my feet. So you certainly can't see there. That's why I highly suggest you take care of it before you get pregnant. Because you can't get laser hair removal when you are pregnant. You have to hold off. So take care of it beforehand or else screw up.

[Co-host/Contributor]

You'd have a little bald baby or else.

[Caller/Listener]

Just deal with it.

[Host/Burt]

Hey, Laura, good Morning. You're on Q100.

[Caller/Listener]

Good morning.

[Host/Burt]

Hi.

[Caller/Listener]

I completely agree. I think she should just go get waxed, though.

I've had two kids in the past

two years, and my husband didn't feel comfortable because he was afraid to, I guess, get down there. But, yeah, she should just go get it waxed and go do it now.

[Co-host/Contributor]

He wasn't that afraid.

[Host/Burt]

It's different when you got a razor in your head.

[Co-host/Contributor]

He wasn't a stranger.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

He's seen it before.

[Host/Burt]

I wonder if there's anybody whose husband absolutely wouldn't do it because they were so freaked out that they would cut that you had to get, like, a best friend to do it. I would be a best girlfriend.

[Co-host/Contributor]

I think I would be that way.

[Host/Burt]

What's that?

[Co-host/Contributor]

I think I would be that way.

Yeah.

[Host/Burt]

Really?

[Co-host/Contributor]

I think I would be that nervous about doing something wrong. I mean, if you're about to pop out a seven pound child out of that area, which is tender already, I ain't going down there with a baby.

Would it make a difference if she was pregnant or not, Would you be able to do that?

It's too. No, because. And I don't think so. Because.

[Caller/Listener]

I think.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Because you're just freaked out by stuff like that.

Really, I'm not. I would not want to be the person to hurt someone else. So my thought is I would be very nervous if someone were that close to me with a blade. You know how, like, if you're ticklish.

No, but it's like a trust thing. Yeah, well, you don't trust yourself.

Right.

[Host/Burt]

I would have no problem at all. Zero.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Here's my fear.

I think that's a different. I don't know.

[Host/Burt]

I'd be like Edward Scissorhands down there.

[Co-host/Contributor]

For me, it's making it a Mickey Mouse.

It's a comfort level. It seems like you and Stacy sort of, like, have that comfort level and that maybe Jeff and Jessica don't.

We don't venture in.

[Host/Burt]

Yeah, into that zone. How long you been married?

[Co-host/Contributor]

I. 400 years or nine. Something like that.

[Host/Burt]

You're gonna be really surprised by the zones you'll venture into in a couple of years.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Well, here. Here's the thing. My fear is. Cause I know how I am. And you know how if you're ticklish somewhere and, like, people even get close to that area, you kind of flinch. You know what I mean? Without actually being like. I think if somebody was getting close to my area with a razor, I would be so jerky that I would end up hurting myself, even if they weren't even bad at what they were doing.

[Host/Burt]

Be like that game Operation.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Yeah, but my nose really would light up.

[Host/Burt]

Hey, Nick. Good Morning. You're on Q100.

[Caller/Listener]

Hey.

[Host/Burt]

Hey.

[Caller/Listener]

I've actually shaved her before, but when she was pregnant, she didn't ever have to ask me. She said she's been doing it for so long, she never even had to look.

[Co-host/Contributor]

She could do it blindly. Now, that is a pro.

[Caller/Listener]

Blindly.

[Host/Burt]

Really?

[Caller/Listener]

That is. Miss a spot.

[Co-host/Contributor]

That is a real pro.

[Host/Burt]

That is very impressive.

[Caller/Listener]

Yeah.

[Host/Burt]

I'm looking for the person whose husband absolutely wouldn't do it. And you had to ask your best friend.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Oh, my God. That's crazy. I have a friend who told me a story recently that they had a roommate once. This is, like, back, like, when she was in her early 20s. They had a guy roommate that was staying with them for a while. Like, just, like, a couple months. And they all came back from going out and were, like, just being obnoxious and, like, gonna go into his room to, like, raise hell or wake him up or whatever. And he was in there doing that to himself. Girlfriend.

What?

No way. And then apparently they found out, like, he had a thing for that.

[Host/Burt]

Oh, really?

[Co-host/Contributor]

He wanted to do that to all the girls he dated.

[Host/Burt]

I knew a dude like that. That's weird. I never heard of it.

[Co-host/Contributor]

I was like, that is weird. That's freaky.

How about this one? How about a.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

That is gross.

[Caller/Listener]

A.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Back when I lived in Arizona, there was a girl who was. She was. She was known as a bit liberal with herself. And she goes over to a dude's house, gets hammered. Guy's not in. Guy's not into her, but he gets hammered, too, so he figures it'll be fine. And apparently at some point in the

[Host/Burt]

night,

[Co-host/Contributor]

he had mentioned that he liked his women well groomed, and she realized she wasn't. So he gets up and goes into the bathroom and finds her in there using his razor, taking care of business. But, like, not really doing it over the tub or a towel or anything.

Oh, my God.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

No.

[Co-host/Contributor]

And she's hammered, so she's barely able to stand up.

Oh, my God.

And he said that that visual made him move out of his apartment because he can no longer walk into his bathroom without seeing that image. Yes.

[Host/Burt]

Hey, Leslie. Good morning. You're on Q100.

[Caller/Listener]

Good morning. Two things. Kind of like to call her with the guy that called. I really don't need. I know where she is, so I can do it without having to see. But the second thing, I had a baby about a year ago, and they came in actually with an electric one. And when they went to go shade, they're like, oh, things all good down there? So I guess it does depend on the doctor and maybe the hospital guidelines, because they actually come in to do that for me.

[Host/Burt]

Oh, no kidding. Okay, thank you. We could not find anybody that had to ask a friend to shave them in that area because their husband wouldn't do it.

[Co-host/Contributor]

Yeah, I have to be a really, really good friend. I don't even know if I could do that.

[Host/Burt]

And your friend would have to be a surgeon. Certified surgeon with a certificate on the wall. Hey, the bird show. Get that Amex gold cart ready. I'm way too tired to cook tonight.

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[Host/Burt]

Yes.

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