Did MDC convert you?

[Jill0905]

how many of you came on here with the plans of circumcising your son and changed your mind? i been thinking about that lately. if i had never came on here (for breastfeeding questions) ds would be circumcised!:

[splash]

I didn't expressly intend to have him circumcised. I knew I didn't really want it done. He was supposed to be born at home, so it would not have been done. However he ended up being born in the hospital, and they were fairly pro circ. I think that, had I not gained the knowledge I did here, that I probably would have relented with the nurses telling me how much healthier it was and all that.

[paquerette]

Nope, been anti for some time now. Never thought much about advocating to others beyond "well, I think it's pointless and you shouldn't do it". Never knew quite so many details before I started reading here.

[mrzmeg]

Yup, way back in 2002. I came to MDC to learn about natural birth and soon got drawn into all the other forums. Actually, on circ, I was pretty apathetic and dh was pro-circ; this forum helped us both get our heads screwed on straight

[LavenderMae]

No ,I found MDC after I had my son. I decided when I was preg with my first from reading the short section on circ ,in a mainstream pregnancy book no less, that I would not circ if I had a boy (my first ended up being a girl).
However I was so happy when I found this forum here at MDC, it was so wonderful to know other people feel the same way as I do about circ!!!

[Daisie125]

Nope, I had every intention of not circing... but this forum did help me convince DH.

[Nora'sMama]

Well, my DH is intact (he's from Europe) and we had discussed circumcision briefly before we found out DD was a girl and it was really a non-issue, we had no reason to even consider circumcizing a possible DS. Actually, I think we discussed this before we even TTC, and again, I didn't see any reason to circ and DH did not understand why Americans circ their boys (besides religious reasons), so we both agreed that there was nothing to discuss as far as our future children (although we did have some interesting discussions about how circ is viewed in Europe vs. in the U.S.).

However, I didn't know very much about circ until I came to MDC and I had no idea there was such a thing as "intactivism". I have definitely learned a lot!!

[InDaPhunk]

When I came to MDC I had already made my decision not to circ a son if I had one, but was still in the process of learning about theh whole thing. The main thing that struck me about MDC and I guess helped solidify my decision was the fact that this isn't a debate board (like the boards on other websites), it was an only pro-intact (anti circ) board. I thought to myself "Wow, there's an entire group of people that think it's not ok under any circumstances to do this, not just a few people here and there but an entire group of them, and they think it should be illegal, etc etc". Something about that made me look at things from another perspective. I already thought RIC was horrible, etc, but the fact that anti-RIC might be an organized "movement" was new to me. In addition to that, I thought that some people were possibly overdoing it a bit on the whole mutilation, abuse, fgm aspect of things, but I could see where they were coming from and understood that activists might look at things from a more...."intense" point of view than just a regular ole' person like yours truly.

Course, now I'm one of those "intense" people .

[myfairbabies]

I first questioned it when I saw the pain my 1 yr old nephew was going through with his circed penis, about a year ago. I did a little research, mainly on a mainstream board, and came to the conclusion that I would do it "safely" with the best clamp, a known doctor that was reccommened, and with pain meds. Then I came here to research vaccines and saw this forum so I started browsing. It was not long before I understood the truth and how horrible it is. I also used the info here to convince my dh, my sister and my sil. Yay MDC!

[mightymoo]

No, I had been a regular on MDC before having my son, but it wasn't this board specifically that made up my mind. I knew this board existed, but like with everything I took it with a grain of salt - I wanted to see both sides and I wanted to start by just learning more about circ in general before getting into reading specific topics and/or debate. I typed 'circumcision' into google and I believe cirp.org came up - after reading the information on that site that I was convinced - and of course everything I've read here since has only served to reinforce that decision!

[A&A]

No, I left my son intact before I found this board. But I still love this board!

[Quirky]

You know, I'm embarrassed to say that I don't remember when the light dawned, before or after joining Mothering. It can't have been too long before I joined MDC (while I was pregnant with ds), because I grew up knowing that circ is just what you do, it's cleaner, it's NOTHING like FGM,

So at some point I got a clue, and I think MDC had a lot to do with it! But can't swear on a stack of Bibles. (Not that that would mean a lot since I'm an atheist. )

MDC is definitely my haven of sanity!

[phatchristy]

For me, I was preggo with my first and my good friend/doula and I were talking sex and she said something which stayed in my mind. She had been with a couple of intact men and she said without a doubt.."OMG, they are just super sexual. So easy to please and they really enjoy themselves so much more than the circ'd men."

That planted a seed...then I overheard my MW refer to the "Doctors re-examine circumcision book" and she told me that she fought tooth and nail with her Jewish DH about circ. She said "over my dead body" and her son is intact . Anyhow, I borrowed the circ book out of their lending library.

I just happened to find this forum a year ago or so, and I am SUPER happy that I did. I know so much more because of this forum!

HUGS

Christy

[Leiahs]

I was questioning circ during my son's pregnancy when I was directed here by a fellow mainstream board member. MDC is what totally made up my mind to keep DS intact

[mama_at_home]

Yes and no. I didn't want to have ds1 circumcised but I just was not confident enough in my decision and allowed myself to be bullied. But after coming here it reaffirmed my original feelings that circumcision was wrong and this forum gave me the confidence I needed to leave ds2 intact. Now I am a total intactivist. I just wish I had found this place sooner.

[minkajane]

Actually, Natural Family Living convinced me, but MDC cemented it!

[eightyferrettoes]

It really, really helped with the whole paradigm shift. I'd already decided something was "off" about circumcision-- just an uneasy gut feeling-- but I needed some information to help me articulate WHY I felt that way.

NOCIRC's info page pretty much sealed the deal for ME, (and I believe I found NOCIRC through someone's signature here!) but this forum offered some good talking points for DH.

Very grateful.

[Jen123]

yup. My son had been circ'd many eons ago. It did make me grow to regret that decision , apologize to ds for it , and educate any woman I know who is having a boy. It's the first thing I mention..."I hope you aren't going to circ" and then launch into various reasons.

[Red Sonja]

Yes, it definitely converted me! When I found out I was pregnant I asked DH (who is circ'd) if we would circ a son and he said "nah, probably not." I had never seen an intact penis and had heard all the myths about circ being cleaner and healthier so I started doing research to show why we SHOULD circ. : An hour on Google and I realized how wrong I was, a day or so reading through the old posts on this forum and my viewpoint had changed 180 degrees.

I originally believed all the myths that are commonly spouted about circumcision but, fortunately for my DS, I educated myself in time to keep him intact.

[sophiesue2]

Yep. It certainly isn't something I sat around thinking about, but all my experiences have been with circed men (including DH). I didn't really take much convincing, once presented with the basic facts. Which I then laid out for DH. The other day I was going off about circ (brought on by a thread that got moved to the religion forum), DH was like "You don't have to convince me circumcision is bad, I think it's as stupid as you do."

ps...i have a girl and a mystery babe on the way....so either way there will be no circumcision here!