About a month ago I posted to my blog and stated that I was going to have some “mommy topics” from time to time. I think it’s a good thing. I am going to try to do at least one a month! This next topic is probably one of the most serious ones I will put up. I contemplated this for a while. But then I got speaking with a friend and decided YES I NEED to post this… Even if I change just ONE mind, it’s worth it. So the topic… Circumcision!
Recently a friend of ours, his wife, my husband and I had a conversation about circumcision. The friend has three kids, two boys and a girl. We have two kids, one boy and one girl. When I was pregnant with my son I did a TON of research on Circumcision. I found very little to support the fact that it is a HUGE hygiene risk to keep my son intact (uncircumcised). I found little had to do with Religion as it once was a Jewish thing, but not so much anymore. I found MOST people doing it are AMERICANS! Other countries rarely preform the routine. But what really had me thinking was a conversation that we had with our friend about it. He did NOT circumcise his sons. I asked him why. Without ANY embarrassment or hesitation he replied “I am circumcised and when I have a full erection it hurts.” WHAT?!?! I was NOT going to do something to my son that is UN-DOABLE and have him suffer in the future. Of course I asked my friend questions and he answered, every last question. He knew that my son was about to be born and he could change ONE person. My husband and I had talked about it but never really decided anything. Here’s a video from Momversation to watch:
So having watched that video, does anyone have any thoughts? Truthfully we decided NOT to circumcise. If my son wants to be circumcised (a body altering experience) he can chose to do so later when he’s older. I guess the part about circumcision that really annoys me is the reasons people chose to DO it. Hygiene (myth), because dad is, because most people are (myth), uneducated decisions. The truth is the rate of baby boys being circumcised is FALLING. Here’s a yearly chart. The average in tact rate in 2006 was 43.9%. Since then it was reported by Parents Magazine that it’s closer to 55% now. As for hygiene, I would honestly hope that one could TEACH their child how to bath and clean. If not you probably shouldn’t have children. The risk of STD’s does decrease, however, once again this can be easily solved by talking to your children about STD’s and the risks of unprotected sex. If you can’t do that then again, you probably shouldn’t have children. I can see the whole, look like dad, however, we were not as aware of things back then as we are now. Bottom line for me, Circumcision is an elective surgery. I would never but my newborn through and elective surgery, I wouldn’t circumcise my girl so why should my boy be … and to top that off, that’s the way he’s born and if it wasn’t supposed to be that way, then God wouldn’t have created males with the foreskin.
Please feel free to comment or not, with your thoughts!
About Bobbie
I had a brother my mom didn’t have cirumcised and when he was 13, he had it done. I can’t remember the details that surrounded WHY he did it – whether it was necessary or what (because I didn’t live with them), but I do know he felt embarrassment and pain. While I don’t know the statistics between doing it or not, I feel that doing it when they are little, they aren’t going to remember it and/or possibly be embarrassed later in life should they make the decision to do it themselves.
To each their own… ;)
Janice, I TOTALLY understand where you are coming from. It is each family personal choice!! Even though I am all for keeping your boys INTACT, I do not feel it is MY choice to make that choice for ANYONE except my family. I do hope that people DO take the time to make an educated decision either way though. I guess that was MORE the point of my post ;)
I do believe they are less likely to remember it as a baby and of course they have no embarassment at that age because the aren’t a social player (meaning school, friends, jobs, etc) at that point, but for me it was more like making a cosmetic decision to my child. I wouldn’t put them for a nose job because it was a little “off center” so why would I do this. But again to each their own ;)
We are going through something similar right now with my son’s belly button. The cord never fell off so they removed it at the DR with a safe procedure in which he slept through. However, because of that he has this little “knot” that is not on a normal belly button. As he’s gotten to be 6 now it’s grown, a TINY TINY bit. The DR wasn’t concerned but sent us to a pediatric surgeon to be sure. They drew samples and things and determined it is not filled with anything. He’s in no danger. However if we remove it, it will alter his belly button appearance. So we’ve opted to have regular visits 1x a year because even though it’s a belly button I don’t want to alter his appearance. It was a diffuicult choice but what he were thinking was best for NOW. It’s possible as he gets bigger it may grow out too, but none the less, I don’t want to give him “plastic surgery” at 6… I didn’t as a newborn, why would I now :)