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Parenting after a Loss
XP from SAL: To circumcise, or not to circumcise?
Once we found out for sure we were having a boy, I asked my s/o how
he felt about having the baby circumcised. I had to laugh at the look
of horror on his face, and the reflexive crotch-grab I'm pretty sure he
didn't even know he'd done. His reply? "Uhhh....." (I should point
out that he's circumcised, himself.)
My older son is circumcised. When he was born, I was a single mama, and all I could think was it would be easier for me to teach him cleanliness. Plus, when he was born (13 years ago), there were still a lot of "experts" stating that it was better for health reasons to have your baby boy circumcised. I don't have any strong feelings either way, for, or against, although the practice seems to be less common than it was when my first boy was born. I told my s/o that this decision should be his, since he's the one with a penis. He told me he can't even think about it.
So! Out of curiosity, those of you having boys (or who have already HAD boys)---will you, or won't you? What are your reasons for your decision? How much a part of the decision was your significant other?This discussion has been closed.
Re: XP from SAL: To circumcise, or not to circumcise?
We did not. It was DH's decision. I didn't care either way. DH was paranoid that the hospital people were going to kidnap our son and cut his penis. From what I've heard and read, Greeks (and many other Europeans) don't circumcise. DH is Greek and he and DS are Greek Orthodox.
Our pedi told us at our prenatal interview that he would not have had his boys circumcised, but he had to for religious reasons. In fact, his office won't do them and neither would my OB.
I think it's more of a personal decision. I don't believe there is a right or a wrong way.
We had so many other health problems with Yianni early on (milk allergy/GERD/apnea) that I can't even fathom dealing with a hurt penis, too.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
we did not. i didn't want ds circumcised - bottom line being that its not medically necessary. it cosmetic surgery. dh is, but after doing research on his own also agreed that he didn't want it done. i asked ever single med prof i could and was surprised when most said they wouldn't.
as for hygiene - you just teach your son to wash. as for stds - teach your son safe sex. all the reasons to get circ'ed were behavior issues. why have a newborn baby undergo an unnecessary med procedure?
We did. The decision was largely DH's, though I also did some research and while generally neither is largely recommended over the other, there are some studies that show that circumcised men are less likely to contract STDs, etc.
But, the decision was mostly made bc DH is circumcized and he wanted hsi son to be too.
A
I'm a little late but wanted to forward some info that DH was reading to make his decision (he's still undecided but ultimately I am leaving the decision up to him). We got this info from our doula:
dr. sears has written maybe a dozen books on infants and children, he
is very well known, a respected figure in the community. here's a
link from his website with his statement regarding circumcision:
https://www.askdrsears.com/html/1/T012000.asp
kind of extreme, but has really decent research and information
https://doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/
website that i'm not very familiar with but one of the few that lean
towards circumcision and looked at all reputable:
https://www.circinfo.com/
We did it and we both wanted to have it done. We did it because of the cleanliness component and the look aspect for when he was older.
Kerri
We didn't because DH chose not to, and I didn't feel too strongly either way. However, on my own I think I would have been inclined to do it. I live in a country where 14% of adults have HIV. So the health benefits of circumcision are real here. Of course, we plan to stress the importance od safe sex, but still, I like to practice what I preach generally.
But like I said, final say went to DH, and he opted out.
When we had my son, Ben circumcised he didn't notice it at all. I would personally recommend it. I've heard if boys aren't done at birth its pretty common for them to need to be circumcised later in life. My brother needed to be circumcised later in life and I didn't want to risk putting my son through that. Plus, I have yet to meet a single man that wasn't happy to be circumcised, but a lot of uncircumcised guys seem to wish they had been snipped.
I have done a lot of research on circumcision and thought you might find these links interesting:
https://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=92426
https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/?ItemID=26068
https://www.physorg.com/news86339340.html
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1141513
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/fishman/2006/circumcision.html
https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15593753/
https://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/07/27/circumcision-sensation.html
https://www.circinfo.com/parents_guide/gfp.html
https://www.modern-psychiatry.com/circumcision.htm
https://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/12/23/circumcision-rates-too-low.html
https://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=1091598&sponsor=
There are some groups on this topic worth checking out:
https://community.babycenter.com/groups/a1236385/choosing_to_circumcise https://www.cafemom.com/group/13109
https://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-ppnoforeskin
even the World health Organization is recommending it now:
https://www.who.int/hiv/mediacentre/news68/en/index.html
https://www.who.int/entity/hiv/mediacentre/MCrecommendations_en.pdf
Hope it was okay to pass that on to you?
Sara
sarr115@yahoo.com