There ARE pro-foreskin people in the Midwest!

[BlessedMommy2006]

My family lives in Michigan and we are visiting my family in the Chicago area over Thanksgiving. We went to work out at a YMCA today. Towards the end when I came to pick up my kids from the childcare I started chatting with the childcare worker. As it turns out, she was 16 weeks pregnant with twins and would soon find out the gender (s) of the babies. After chatting about other things, I said, "Just to ask you, because I would have hated to be uninformed about this while I was pregnant, you do know that if one or both of the babies are boys, that you don't HAVE to circumcise right?" She said, "Oh yes, I learned about it in my early childhood education degree. There are actually health benefits to leaving the foreskin intact." I said, "Yes, an intact foreskin protects against meatal stenosis in infancy. I said, "The majority of the men in the world aren't circ'ed, it's absolutely unnecessary and I couldn't imagine putting my son through surgery within a couple of days of his birth.


I said, "I just wanted to share that with you because I have had friends who actually didn't know that they had a choice not to, and wished that they had been informed. Now being that we are in the Midwest where it is common to circ, the doctors may try to pressure you in the hospital, but just stand firm. Remember that they make money off doing the procedure." I said, "Where I'm from, 80% of boys get circ'ed, but I certainly wouldn't jump off a cliff just because 80% of my friends were doing so."

I went over some things about making sure that doctors didn't retract her potential son (s) and she already knew that too!

It just made my day to find a fully informed person like that already. It would be great if her babies turn out to be boys!

Just wanted to share a positive intactivist experience!

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

That is great. I love hearing that more people than just on this board know about not circing and proper intact care.

[Night_Nurse]

Great!

[Fay]

I'm the mother of 2 intact boys in Michigan -- there are intactivists in the most surprising places around here! The more I talk about it, the more intactivists I find!

[tlh]

Everybody I talk to already seems to know too.

[fruitful womb]

That is really ~awesome~!

[ledzepplon]

Of course there are! For example, many areas of the Midwest were settled by Scandinavians, who don't circ.

[AXEius]

I am surprised how many people i know that are pro-foreskin here in michigan. Sometimes i feel like no one here allows their children to stay whole, then i meet someone who has intact sons. Just a couple weeks ago i took a teenage boy from our church hunting and his mother and i got into a discussion while i was there waiting for him to gather his hunting gear. She watched my daughter and her son who are the same age while we went hunting. They just got a puppy and were discussing the fact that he was supposed to be a German Shepard mix and he looked nothing of the sort, his ears werent even pointy. Then the teenage daughter says that they could clip his ears to make them pointy, and i said "ouch i wouldnt do that" The teenage boy says that they don't feel it, and i said yeah they do, people just say that so they don't feel bad about what they are doing. Then his mom says "yeah thats like when the doctor tried to tell me that boys don't feel it when the do the circumcisions". I said "exactly, they know it hurts and that its unnecessary. they just want you not to feel bad so that you will do it and they will get paid for it" She said "no way was i gonna put my boys through that kind of pain". It was really cool, and made my day to hear that. I also had a neighbor who left her boys intact but that is another story and this post is long enough. I hope the number of intact boys just continues to grow.

[mslissa]

We are in Illinois and left DS intact in part to the information I got on this board. A good friend in St. Louis asked me about our decision and we had some good conversations. She now has a newborn son and left him intact. My OB left her son intact. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the midwest who don't circ and I bet the numbers are growing.

[Quirky]

Great story! And good job taking the plunge and talking to her! I know for a lot of intactivists it's really difficult to contemplate talking to strangers but with the right approach it can be very rewarding!

I am a firm believer that it's easier for strangers to hear the message about leaving babies intact than it is for family/friends in many cases. There can be so many relationship issues and emotions tangled up in the conversation with family and friends that get in the way of true communication. I love the approach of "I had no idea before someone told me when I was pregnant," because it puts you in the same place as the listener to empathize and it puts the information in "paying it forward" mode. For some reason I just think it's easier to hear for many people when it's phrased as "wow, the doctors sure didn't tell me this! I wonder why??"

[knittygritty]

Of course there are! I'm one of them down in Southern IL!

[TyrantOfTheWeek]

My 2 boys were born in Cincinnati. The doctor actually did EVERYTHING he could to convince me that they NEEDED chopped.
*puke*

[lucifugous]

I have talked to several practitioners here in Chicago- midwives, pedis, family docs- and all have said that it is a choice you can make purely for aesthetic purposes. Of course none of them have ever said they wonder why cutting your newborn son for aesthetic purposes is even an option... but none of them have touted it as having any benefits.
If you are looking to suss out ignorance, I don't know, maybe you'll have better luck in a small town? :P

[writteninkursive]

I live in Ohio and I didn't circ my 3-month-old baby boy. It seems so horrendously unnatural. And *gasp*, he hasn't died of a UTI yet from not being circ'ed.

We're not all country bumpkins out here in the midwest, I promise!