Expecting #2 ...Need info to support NOT circumsizing..

[Emmylou]

Hey ladies,

DH and I are expecting # 2 and although we don't know the sex yet, I want to begin collecting information on circumcision. I already know the supposed benifits of it but now I want to know the benifits of keeping baby boy in one piece
Our first was a girl so we did not have to worry about making a choice.

Any information or websites would be greatly appreciated

Emmy

[Fellow Traveler]

Originally Posted by Emmylou

Hey ladies,

DH and I are expecting # 2 and although we don't know the sex yet, I want to begin collecting information on circumcision. I already know the supposed benifits of it but now I want to know the benifits of keeping baby boy in one piece
Our first was a girl so we did not have to worry about making a choice.

Any information or websites would be greatly appreciated

Emmy

I would say that one of the primary benefit is giving him a choice over his body. Perhaps this pamphlet is a good place to start. We really feel here that the situation should be reversed. The question should be, why do it rather than why not do it. When you really look at the purported benefits they are slim and don't justify taking his choice away from him. Perhaps if you share some of the benefits that you've heard we can provide you with information as to why we feel they don't add up. Oh and congratulations and welcome to the board.

[SlackerDad]

Other people here can give you all kinds of websites and so on. I can just tell you that as an intact American man who just happened to get lucky (my parents were overseas and the airline wouldn't let my mom on the plane 8 months pregnant so I was born in a country where they don't circumcise infants), your son will be very very glad when he is old enough to understand about the issue and what he avoided. It's pretty hard to really explain to a woman or to a circed man, but from my perspective I need my foreskin like I need eyelids if that makes sense. The part under the foreskin (the glans) is meant to be an internal organ that is kept moist, and there is another aspect of the function of the natural, intact penis (I believe intactivists call it the "gliding action") which I understand is lost in circumcision.

One difference from when I was growing up is that circumcision is not nearly as overwhelmingly culturally dominant as it was. That was the only downside for me: that being intact made me "different" in the locker room (though that never made me want to be circumcised, though my parents gave me the option). Within only a few years, it looks like the majority of boys born in the U.S. will be intact. So join the future, not the past, and your son will be most grateful, I promise you.

[MyBoysBlue]

New reccomendations put out in September 2009 by The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, Canada.

https://www.cpsbc.ca/files/u6/Circum...nfant-Male.pdf

I thought it was well written, it looks at the ethical side of things.

[Fellow Traveler]

Originally Posted by MyBoysBlue

New reccomendations put out in September 2009 by The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, Canada.

https://www.cpsbc.ca/files/u6/Circum...nfant-Male.pdf

I thought it was well written, it looks at the ethical side of things.

That's an interesting sheet. I can't believe nobody has posted it before.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

The benefits are so many it is hard to think of them all. some right off the top of my head:

Sex is as nature intended it.
Child gets to decide how they look not some dr choosing the way it will look.
No risk of death during circ.
No risk of to tight erections from to much skin removed.
No risk of loss of sensation of the glans.

If boys/men where not meant to have a foreskin they would be born without one. If a boy is born without one then it is marked as a birth defect on his paper work.

There really are no benefits to circ. It dosnt protect from HIV it dosnt protect from STD's. Nor does it protect from cancer or any of the other things that you might have read about online. The only thing circ does is reduce the size of the penis and opens the door for complications down the road.

[Emmylou]

Thank you all for your responses....I had pretty much made my desicion before hearing from you all but now it has solidified my choice of keeping my child intact. Of course this is a desicion to discuss with DH but I am sure he will agree with me on this one. He refused to peirce my DD ears when she was a newborn since he wanted anything done to her body to be her choice when she got old enough to decide for her own. Considering circumcision is a waaay more invasive operation, I am sure he will agree with me on this one

Thank you all for your input!

[Fellow Traveler]

Originally Posted by Emmylou

Thank you all for your responses....I had pretty much made my desicion before hearing from you all but now it has solidified my choice of keeping my child intact. Of course this is a desicion to discuss with DH but I am sure he will agree with me on this one. He refused to peirce my DD ears when she was a newborn since he wanted anything done to her body to be her choice when she got old enough to decide for her own. Considering circumcision is a waaay more invasive operation, I am sure he will agree with me on this one

Thank you all for your input!

You're very welcome. Sounds like you have a good talking point already though.

[SlackerDad]

Originally Posted by Emmylou

Thank you all for your responses....I had pretty much made my desicion before hearing from you all but now it has solidified my choice of keeping my child intact. Of course this is a desicion to discuss with DH but I am sure he will agree with me on this one. He refused to peirce my DD ears when she was a newborn since he wanted anything done to her body to be her choice when she got old enough to decide for her own. Considering circumcision is a waaay more invasive operation, I am sure he will agree with me on this one

Thank you all for your input!

You're welcome and thanks for coming to us with your question!

[nd_deadhead]

Welcome to the board, Emmylou, and congrats on your pregnancy!

DH and I have 15-yr-old twin boys, and we didn't have Internet access when I was pg, so our thoughts on circumcision were strictly gut feelings and common sense. As we discussed it (keeping in mind that DH and all the men we knew [as far as we knew] were circumcised), we had the following thoughts:

1. That's GOT to HURT! Obviously cutting off part of a boy's most sensitive body part would be uncomfortable at the very least - brutally painful at the worst. We didn't want to do anything to cause unnecessary pain to our precious babies.

2. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It didn't make sense to us to sign our babies up for operations if they didn't really NEED them.

3. Boys are born with a foreskin; it must be there for a reason. Even though we had no idea what the foreskin did at the time, we figured there had to be SOME purpose, so it was better left alone.

4. DH was not the least concerned about his son's penises "matching" his. Later I started telling people that if a guy wanted his penis to match his son's, he should shave his pubic hair and pack ice in his shorts.

We have not regretted that decision for a millisecond. When our boys first learned about circumcision, at age 8, they were horrified - they couldn't imagine NOT having a foreskin, and they were appalled to learn that parents signed their newborns up for such a fate. As they've gotten older (in high school now), they are even more convinced that infant circumcision is a cruel and terrible thing to do.

It sounds like your DH will be easy to convince. Good luck!

[Quirky]

If you need any further resources, www.oknocirc.blogspot.com is very informational and a great format esp. for people with questions about circ. It dispels a lot of myths.

[erin23kate]

Watch a video of a circumcision. Youtube has them.

Type "circumcision complications" into google. Your baby can die. Your baby can lose his penis completely. Your baby will experience excrutiating pain.

The best answer for me.... he can be circumcised when he's an adult but infant circumcision can't be "un-done". It's not my genitalia, it's his - and the choice of what it should look like should be up to him, NOT me. I wouldn't tattoo his testicles or pierce his glans... why would I have the right to cut off a piece of his penis?