[DocsNemesis]

...for all those little baby boys.

This statement just hit me hard:
"They told me there would be no pain ... a tremendous flash of blinding white pain surged through my entire body ... I thought I had been electrocuted and was dead ... The pain was the worse I have ever experienced ... I cannot imagine any pain possibly being worse." (From a letter to Rosemary Romberg, author of Circumcision: The Painful Dilemma, from a man in Florida, circumcised at age 25 under local anesthesia, describing what he felt when the doctor cut his frenulum.)
And most of those baby boys dont have any anesthesia at all. I need to go cry now.

:

 

[KrystalC]

That's awful.

 

[DahliaRW]

Wow, every person considering circ for their newborn should read that. How much worse would it be to a newborn who has only been alive a few hours/days/weeks and has no concept of what is happening.

:

 

[mamaofthreecats]

i just can't imagine bringing a baby in the world and instantly introducing him to pain. that blood test on the foot was bad enough. my family gave me a really hard time about not mutilating his genital area and then went on to talk about how much their own babies hurt during the procedure, and then wrote it off like its part of life or something.

 

[smurphygt]

I think part of the problem is that some people think babies don't feel pain right after birth or if they do, it's only minor pain. My neighbor said she chose to circ her son without any anesthesia because he just went through the birth canal and was already in pain from that.

: The really sad thing about that neighbor was that her husband was intact.

 

[kimkabob5]

What gets me is that all parents are upset at the pain of the PKU test, but think they have no feeling in their penis. How does this make sense? Babies cry at wet diapers, when they are hungry, when accidentally poked with a diaper pin. But they dont feel the pain of having a circumcision.

Its completely insane.

 

[babygrant]

The comment in response to a circ that makes me angry is "well he won't remember it anyways".

:

 

[KnitLady]

I really don't get it. WHY don't people think babies feel pain?? Even if you gently kiss a baby on the head, they often stir in their sleep...because they feel it! They feel the lightest touch of a kiss, of course they are going to feel it when you cut their foreskin off! It makes me want to cry. I think part of the problem is that people do not acknowledge babies as full-fledged people with full-fledged rights and feelings.

 

[Robin926]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KnitLady I think part of the problem is that people do not acknowledge babies as full-fledged people with full-fledged rights and feelings.

Bingo. Babies are like possessions to most people. Just something little and cute to do with as you please. If the parents think his penis needs to look a certain way, it happens. If mom is "uncomfortable" with breastfeeding, then he doesn't deserve his expected nutrition. Rarely do people really look at what the babies NEED, EXPECT, and DESERVE. It's all about the parents because the babies are too small to really "matter."

Obviously I'm feeling quite cynical today.

 

[dnr3301]

Quote:

Originally Posted by babygrant The comment in response to a circ that makes me angry is "well he won't remember it anyways". :

I always say I have a friend who was raped after being drugged with roofies. She doesn't remember it either, does that make it ok?

 

[mommyswenn]

Not to mention, that at 25 I'm guessing that man was already able to retract his foreskin. So there would be that added pain for a newborn, as if the rest of that description isn't horrific enough.