diff --git a/Doc/library/socketserver.rst b/Doc/library/socketserver.rst
index 7c8c8d52e03d95..232c0616d925dc 100644
--- a/Doc/library/socketserver.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/socketserver.rst
@@ -237,6 +237,8 @@ Server Objects
    .. method:: shutdown()
 
       Tell the :meth:`serve_forever` loop to stop and wait until it does.
+      :meth:`shutdown` must be called while :meth:`serve_forever` is running in a
+      different thread otherwise it will deadlock.
 
 
    .. method:: server_close()
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2020-03-11-15-49-35.bpo-3979.PerThq.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2020-03-11-15-49-35.bpo-3979.PerThq.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..a563072b02f153
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2020-03-11-15-49-35.bpo-3979.PerThq.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+This is a simple change to inform the user that shutdown() should be run from a different thread than serve_forever()
\ No newline at end of file