penis talk
Im not sure anyone will really care to read this, but ive got to get it out somewhere. If you do read it, please dont start a fight with me. I dont really care what your personal choices are because they are just that, personal. This is my personal journal so Im going to write about it here.
Until we found out we were having a boy I really hadn't thought much about circumcision. It was just something that was routinely done, so it cant be *that* bad, right? I asked Chris what he thought and was surprised to be met with a very firm "no way!" and a rant about how he thinks its total bs that someone that was not him made the decision to remove an important part of his body. Fair enough, our decision was made. I understood where he was coming from, and I agreed with saying no because there really wasnt any good reason to do it in my mind.
Imagine my great surprise when not only did people ask about it, but argued with me about our decision. "its dirty" "it will look weird" "hell get made fun of" "itll give him stds" Even one of the drs in my OB practice gave me shit when I said we were not cutting off a piece of our sons body when he has no say over it, especially when it is completely unnecessary and when the best argument people can come up with is "it will look funny." I dont consider the talk about STDs, cancer, or HIV because they have been debunked a million times, and honestly I planned on teaching my son proper hygiene and condom use no matter whether he had his foreskin or not.
I was also really surprised how many times I had to tell the hospital staff that "NO" you cant take him away to circumcise him, we werent doing that. They put a little band on his foot that said "do no circumcise" which he kicked off about 8 times a day. Luckily for us, and him, I kept him in my room the entire time, so I was always there to say no. Why is it that they put a band on there saying not to do surgery? Shouldnt they default at no and put a band on if they want the surgery? Wouldnt it be better to accidentally not cut a part off that someone wanted gone than to mistakenly cut off a part of someone's body that they wanted to keep?
There was a lot of pressure. It was sad. Now that we are home, taking care of a baby with a foreskin has been absolutely no different than I remember taking care of any other baby whos diaper I had changed.
So of course now that Im a mom and I have a lj, Im part of a bunch of parenting communities. This has led to reading a bunch of debate over routine circumcision. Somehow I stumbled on this site, and I just watched the video - http://www.drmomma.org/2010/02/dr-dean-edell-statement-on-circumcision.html
The site itself is just the same basic arguments and their debunkments, but still informative. The video however...wow. I was holding the baby while I watched the surgery performed, and I cried, and I gave him a big hug. I had to stop it halfway through the surgery part so that I could go throw up. Gore doesn't bother me. Listening to the terrified screams of an infant in pain who is strapped down on a board and being operated on with very little to no anesthetic definitely did.
Why oh why is this routinely done, and why oh why do people have little to no idea how bad it really is? I honestly had no idea that they strap the poor little guys down, and I honestly had no idea that they had to go in and scrape off pieces. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me want to puke again.
This has very firmly moved me from the "meh" camp to the very anti camp. I wish everyone had to watch a video of it being done before they decided for their little boys, that way at least everyone would be making an informed decision.
I think I have more to say, and definitely need to edit for grammar, but my peanut just woke up and I need to hug him again.
Until we found out we were having a boy I really hadn't thought much about circumcision. It was just something that was routinely done, so it cant be *that* bad, right? I asked Chris what he thought and was surprised to be met with a very firm "no way!" and a rant about how he thinks its total bs that someone that was not him made the decision to remove an important part of his body. Fair enough, our decision was made. I understood where he was coming from, and I agreed with saying no because there really wasnt any good reason to do it in my mind.
Imagine my great surprise when not only did people ask about it, but argued with me about our decision. "its dirty" "it will look weird" "hell get made fun of" "itll give him stds" Even one of the drs in my OB practice gave me shit when I said we were not cutting off a piece of our sons body when he has no say over it, especially when it is completely unnecessary and when the best argument people can come up with is "it will look funny." I dont consider the talk about STDs, cancer, or HIV because they have been debunked a million times, and honestly I planned on teaching my son proper hygiene and condom use no matter whether he had his foreskin or not.
I was also really surprised how many times I had to tell the hospital staff that "NO" you cant take him away to circumcise him, we werent doing that. They put a little band on his foot that said "do no circumcise" which he kicked off about 8 times a day. Luckily for us, and him, I kept him in my room the entire time, so I was always there to say no. Why is it that they put a band on there saying not to do surgery? Shouldnt they default at no and put a band on if they want the surgery? Wouldnt it be better to accidentally not cut a part off that someone wanted gone than to mistakenly cut off a part of someone's body that they wanted to keep?
There was a lot of pressure. It was sad. Now that we are home, taking care of a baby with a foreskin has been absolutely no different than I remember taking care of any other baby whos diaper I had changed.
So of course now that Im a mom and I have a lj, Im part of a bunch of parenting communities. This has led to reading a bunch of debate over routine circumcision. Somehow I stumbled on this site, and I just watched the video - http://www.drmomma.org/2010/02/dr-dean-edell-statement-on-circumcision.html
The site itself is just the same basic arguments and their debunkments, but still informative. The video however...wow. I was holding the baby while I watched the surgery performed, and I cried, and I gave him a big hug. I had to stop it halfway through the surgery part so that I could go throw up. Gore doesn't bother me. Listening to the terrified screams of an infant in pain who is strapped down on a board and being operated on with very little to no anesthetic definitely did.
Why oh why is this routinely done, and why oh why do people have little to no idea how bad it really is? I honestly had no idea that they strap the poor little guys down, and I honestly had no idea that they had to go in and scrape off pieces. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me want to puke again.
This has very firmly moved me from the "meh" camp to the very anti camp. I wish everyone had to watch a video of it being done before they decided for their little boys, that way at least everyone would be making an informed decision.
I think I have more to say, and definitely need to edit for grammar, but my peanut just woke up and I need to hug him again.