When my son is born..?

Question

I cant decide whether to get him circumcised or not...does it really matter?

Answer 1

I am also an OB Registered Nurse for a good sized hospital in a large city. I have witnessed many circumcisions, including more than a few botched jobs that will require additional surgeries for correction. My first born son almost died due to one!
No, you really shouldn't have your son circumcised. I've already answered this question several times on here today. Please people, do your research before you go cutting off peoples healthy body parts.
Let me ask you this- have you hoped or prayed for a perfectly healthy boy during your pregnancy? Do you have faith in God/a higher power/Mother Nature? If you answered yes to these questions, then please trust when your son arrives that he will be perfectly designed, no cosmetic surgery is needed.

A brief bit about me. I had my first child before I was a nurse. I had him circed because I just thought that was what was done. I didn't research it. I was foolish. My poor son almost hemorrhaged to death and required a stay in NICU to recover. He's totally fine now, thankfully, and has no problems.
Later I went to nursing school and learned how circumcisions are no longer medically recommended by any medical organization in the US or the world. It's strictly cosmetic. I also saw first hand how barbaric it is to the little boy's. Any person who tells you the child doesn't feel it is lying. I will provide a link with a video. The baby does feel it. I've seen the circs with lidocaine and EMLA cream. It does help a little, but it still hurts them very much. Plus you need to remember how much the urine and feces will burn the poor, raw penis for about a week and a half after it's cut.
I can only say I suspect the Nurse who posted above me is not current on her urological or circumcision research. She seems to be very pro-circ. Hospitals and doctors profit off of cutting and selling foreskins. ( http://www.webmagician.com/pubservice/fore_sale.html ) Maybe her hospital encourages her to tell parents to circ for the extra profit. I have nothing to gain by telling you to keep your child intact. As I said, I almost lost my first child due to bleeding after a circ because I was ignorant and didn't do my research.
The majority of doctors and nurse I know, including OB docs, nurses, and even our family urologist, did not circ their own children. I think out of all the nurses under the age of 40 I know, maybe 3 or 4 have circed their sons.

As my video link will show, yes, the baby will cry once it's placed on the restraint board, but the cry becomes much louder and more frantic once the clamping and cutting start.
http://intact.ca/video.html - make sure the sound is on. This is what a circumcision really looks and sounds like.

Since becoming a nurse, I've remarried and had more children. Although my husband is circumcised, our younger children are not. Our boys are intact and have never had one single problem.

As for the people who say "he'll never remember it because he's so young", I just don't understand that. Most of what happens to a child before they are 3 they will never remember. That doesn't mean you want something traumatic to happen to your child. Chances are, your son will never, ever need a circumcision as an adult. If he did, he'd be put under general anesthesia and be given really good pain meds afterwards. Your infant son will get neither. The majority of the world is uncircumcised and they all seem to live to be ripe old ages. Depending on where you live, the circ vs uncirc rate may be 50-50. In California I think only around 30 % of boys are circumcised. Even the states in the mid-west with the highest rates only circ about 75% - 80% of boys. That means your son will always have other uncircumcised boys in school with him and the circ rates everywhere continue to drop. My state has a circ. rate of about 65% but it's declining.
Your daughter has a higher rate of urinary infection than your son will ever have. You wouldn't cut on your daughter would you? You'd treat with antibiotics if she got an infection. Why wouldn't you do the same with your son? Besides, most boys never have a problem with infection or cancer issues. As far as the cleanliness thing goes, you have to teach all boys, cut or intact, to wash behind their ears, wash their neck, wash their penis, etc. And you have to tell girls to wash their labia or it will get smelly. It's just all part of being a parent - teaching them what's right and wrong.

As far as the people saying women like it better sexually - that is so individual and really isn't something a mother should be thinking about. I mean, I bet half the women will say they like it cut, half the women will say the prefer the natural, intact look. There is know way of knowing what your son or his future partner will prefer. And I don't think parents should be thinking about that aspect of their son as an infant anyway. When the son is old enough to have adult behaviors, the son can choose to have a circ if he likes the look. But he won't have a say in the matter if he prefers intact and the parents circumcised him at birth.

Nothing in life is 100%. I can't tell you there will be no problems if you leave him intact. I can't tell you he will or will not have problems if he's circumcised. I can just tell you what I have seen from experience as a mother of intact and circumcised sons and as a RN who has witnessed many circs.
And the very best advice I have is to just trust that God will give you a healthy son and please just love and accept him the way he's born.
At least you are looking into the circumcision debate and trying to educate yourself on it. That's far more than most people do. Good for you! That shows you're going to be a good mother. Good luck to you and your son on what ever decision you make.

Answer 2

It really does matter, it is HIS penis not yours, it is not your decision to make. You may have a legal ability to make this decision but you know you would be upset if someone had ok'd body modifying elective surgery on you.

Some doctors do use a local some still do not. The doctors don't think it is necessary because the little guys are easy to tie down and can't get up and leave or defend themselves anyway. Plus once the cutting begins the boy goes into shock and may even quit crying.

Does it really hurt the baby? If they give him a local that will wear off in a few hours, the pain isn't just during surgery it goes on for at least a week. Have you ever had a fingernail ripped off? The pain goes on and on for days.

Just because the boy can't tell you how bad it is doesn't mean that it is not painful. If you ignore a child's crying long enough they will quit crying, as it is not doing them any good anyway, nobody is making the hurt go away.

The thing is it is such an unneeded pain. The reasons that are used for circumcising are totally false.

If a doctor says circumcision is needed, it is because he/she doesn't know or want to know how to treat an intact penis. He can make more money cutting than he can by prescribing a cream to treat whatever little problem might arise.

More and more little boys are being left intact; those that are cut are going to see that they are missing something. Some day they will look it up and find just what was taken from them, without their consent. Do you want your son to ask, "Why did you have my penis cut? What gave you that right?

I see a lot of females answer these questions, like they have so much experience with what it is like to be circumcised. They have no idea! If her clothing was to grate against her clitoris every day all day, a woman might get the beginnings of an idea. They think it is just a flap of skin; with 240 feet of nerves and 20,000 specialized nerve endings the foreskin is comparable to the female clitoris.

It comes to this; some new mothers are so damn lazy they are willing to have their new baby cut on because somebody said it is easier than cleaning him or teaching him hygiene!

Answer 3

As long as you practice basic hygeine and teach your son to, it doesn't really matter whether you decide to circumcise or not.

There used to be all sorts of medical things saying that circumcised males were less likely to get STD's, including AIDS, and urinary tract infections, but they've pretty much all been disproven now.

My son is circumcised and there was no problem with it. If all of my other children are boys, they will all be circumcised, too. It's just a personal opinion.

Answer 4

It doesn't really matter. Circumcision is slightly cleaner, meaning about 1 in a thousand boys who aren't get some sort of urinary track infection and only 1 in ten thousand who are get one. If your religion requires it by all means feel free. My son is and I would get it done to any other sons I would have but it's not really a big deal to most people either way. As for the effects later in life as far as I can tell there is no difference. I've been married twice. My first husband wasn't and my current husband is.

Answer 5

No, it doesn't really matter. It is purely an aesthetic thing...some people like the look, others don't. There are no health benefits to having it or not having it. Nowadays, many doctors are stopping performing circumcisions...and (here in Canada anyways) we are being charged for a circumcision to be performed, when just a few short years ago, it was free. It's up to you and the father.

Answer 6

I didn't (my son just turn 1) because there is not real reason to. What really put it in perspective for me was I read while I was at the Dr office that since the Pediatric Association no longer accepts the routine practice of circ, the states Medicaid will not pay for it. I spoke to my husband, brother, and father with my husband getting final vote and all said it really doesn't matter. The sites mentioned above are really helpful and the video is what made my final decision. My family (women) opposed it saying it wasn't clean, but if my child was a girl I would be expected to teach her to clean properly why would you not do the same for a son. You would surgically alter your girl for the same reasons given. Why would there be foreskin if it wasn't supposed to be there in the first place? Why would people really justify cutting it for the child's future "look" during sex? Give your daughter breast implants early so she can have the same "look" when it comes that time also. These are ridiculous reasons. Sorry for the ranting but please follow your heart and trust yourself.

Answer 7

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics www.aap.org a circumcision is a cosmetic procedure and not necessary. I would suggest you go to their website and see the risks and benefits. Another site you can check is: www.nocirc.org they have information as well as a video showing an actual circumcision.
Good luck making an informed decision!

Answer 8

Honestly, GirlnamesSue and Cut50year said everything I could want to say.

I still don't get why people are saying that it reduces infections- girls get infections ALL the time, and we don't remove their labia because of it.

Also, as far as the HIV and STD studies, they are conducted in 3rd world countries, and can't possibly by ethical standards be tested properly. In order to test the study properly, they would have to introduce the virus to the host. We just can't do that.
Anyway, we need to teach our children to use condoms. Just because a boy is circumcised does not mean he is immune to disease.
My son is intact. He has never had a problem. His penis, his choice.

Answer 9

Don't do it. There is no medical reason for it and it is painful regardless of what you hear. My daughter was in the NICU and when they did it there,they just pulled the curtain around the baby's crib. they strap them to a papoose board so they can't move. And they do cry. Some docs give pain meds, some don't. I have three kids. Two are boys. They are not circumsised. Some people will tell you they get less infections and such. My boys are 9 and 6. They have never had an infection. I strongly reccomend not doing it.

Answer 10

yes it does matter and you shouldn't. There is no reason to do it and there is tons of misunderstanding on it out there epsecially in north america. Would you cirucumcise your girl, then y your boy. It's not cleaner, unless he's unhygenic, just as he would get cavities from not brushing teeth. It's not worth for the health reason as they say that 1 in 100 have chance of getting cancer while that 1 in 9 for breast cancer, so y would u have 99 cut to prevent 1. And besides that, it's not your body to decide what to amputate or not, respect him enough to let him keep his body the way it's suppose to be, foreskin is not a disease as some people make it out to be. You cant remove healthy sexual skin without removing healthy sexual skin. Is ther any skin on your body that you can't feel, what maks you think that it doesn't make a difference if you cut part of his penis off, especially since that's errogonous tissue. It's comparable to clitoris in woman. Most men here are cut and dont know what they're missing out on, that's y they dont have a problem with it, similar to many of the woman who are cut dont' have a problem with it. Leave him how nature intended