Note: This post is not intended to make an argument against circumcision, that is a more complex issue to be addressed in a future post. It's a message for the non-circ population, so please don't waste your time attacking me for not giving any facts. If you're looking for information, check out some of our links at the bottom.
While following an on-line debate about routine infant circumcision (RIC), one poster asked if we were actually doing anything about it or just talking about it. They said that no one listens to non-circumcision arguments and that talking about it is a joke if we don't actually do anything. In reality, what they said could not be further from the truth.
Talking about circumcision is probably the biggest thing we can do. Most people don't even realize there is something to talk about when it comes to circumcision. Like me, many people don't even think twice about it until someone brings it up. Once they know there is something to actual research, many parents decide that reasons not to circumcise out weigh the arguments for it. But before they can even ask themselves if they would circumcise their child, they need to know there is a question to ask.
Sure, being politically active or donateting and joinging groups that work to inform people definitely helps. But just talking about it changes so many lives. Everyone I know that has made the choice to keep their child intact was influenced by someone they knew.
Despite what that person believed, people do listen and talking about the reasons not to do routine circumcision is doing something about it! You may not change everyones mind, but if you even change one, that is one baby that will be left intact. Then he will influence people in his life and it will continue.
So keep talking! Keep telling people why you chose to keep your child intact. Keep giving people the facts about routine infant circumcision and letting them know there is something to talk about. Keep passing informational articles along on Facebook and discussion boards. Our words are our strongest tool and people do listen. We can change our world one person at a time and someday it might just be routine to leave our baby boys intact, just they way they were born!
For more information on the circumcision debate, check out these resources:
NOCIRC
As Nature Intended: Infant Circumcision Info
Showing posts with label circumcise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label circumcise. Show all posts
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Thank you for saving my son’s penis!
Like many expectant parents, circumcision is something I had never even thought about. What was there to think about anyway? If you had a boy, they were circumcised. That’s just what you did with boys. There had to be a good reason we had been cutting the foreskin off of boys for most of the last century.
It wasn’t until my husband and I received an educational pamphlet in our birth class that either of us had even thought about circumcision. We were surprised about the information we read in that short little pamphlet. In a matter of 10 minutes, my husband and I had decided that we wouldn’t circumcise our baby if we had a boy.
The pamphlet was very short and to the point, but very informative and convincing. There were several key points that hit home to us right away. One was that there was NO medical reason to remove the foreskin and the reason it had originally been done was to “prevent masturbation”. Secondly, that the foreskin actually protects the penis and has nerve endings that would be removed. And thirdly, that circumcision is surgery that is not only painful for the baby, but has risks like any surgery. You can read the pamphlet here: http://www.nocirc.org/publish/3pam.pdf
As it turned out, we did have a boy. And thanks to our Bradley instructor, his penis is still intact. But I honestly believe we would have allowed it without even blinking.
My views on circumcision have become much stronger as time has passed. That is why I feel it is so important to share information whenever I can. But instead of making people feel guilty for the choice they make, I focus on just making a choice! No matter how wrong I feel it is to unnecessarily subject a newborn to that kind of trauma, I will respect your right to do it if you actually make the decision.
Getting people to know there is even something to think about is the first step to changing things.
National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC)
As Nature Intended
Peaceful Parenting: The Day I Withdrew From Nursing School
It wasn’t until my husband and I received an educational pamphlet in our birth class that either of us had even thought about circumcision. We were surprised about the information we read in that short little pamphlet. In a matter of 10 minutes, my husband and I had decided that we wouldn’t circumcise our baby if we had a boy.
The pamphlet was very short and to the point, but very informative and convincing. There were several key points that hit home to us right away. One was that there was NO medical reason to remove the foreskin and the reason it had originally been done was to “prevent masturbation”. Secondly, that the foreskin actually protects the penis and has nerve endings that would be removed. And thirdly, that circumcision is surgery that is not only painful for the baby, but has risks like any surgery. You can read the pamphlet here: http://www.nocirc.org/publish/3pam.pdf
As it turned out, we did have a boy. And thanks to our Bradley instructor, his penis is still intact. But I honestly believe we would have allowed it without even blinking.
My views on circumcision have become much stronger as time has passed. That is why I feel it is so important to share information whenever I can. But instead of making people feel guilty for the choice they make, I focus on just making a choice! No matter how wrong I feel it is to unnecessarily subject a newborn to that kind of trauma, I will respect your right to do it if you actually make the decision.
Getting people to know there is even something to think about is the first step to changing things.
National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC)
As Nature Intended
Peaceful Parenting: The Day I Withdrew From Nursing School
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Circumcision Tragedy
I had not been planning to start this blog just yet since I am due to have a baby any day now, but I was to upset by this story to not say something.
I just read about the tragic death of a baby that occurred this morning because he was circumcised. The poor baby had some heart issues which already made this a risky procedure, but the parents and doctor felt like the risk of bleeding would get worse as the baby grew and decided not to wait until he was bigger. Sadly, after hours of bleeding, they found that an artery had been nicked during the surgery. They were able to stop the bleeding, but the baby had lost a lot of blood. Last night the mother blogged that she had almost killed her baby. Tragically, he died this morning almost 12 hours after her post.
You don't have to be a parent to find this story extremely heartbreaking. I personally do not agree with circumcision, nor do I circumcise my children, but that is not what this post is about. I am not trying to start a debate about whether circumcision is right or not, or whether these parents who now morn the loss of their baby boy did the right thing. Their loss is too tragic and great and I will not judge them.
What has me so upset and angry is that his official cause of death was ruled to be cardiac arrest. The doctors have reassured the parents over and over that the circumcision had nothing to do with their son's death. I understand that they are probably trying to comfort the parents, but this is just not right.
A baby only needs to lose 1 ounce of blood to hemorrhage, and just 2.3 ounces to die as a result of this blood loss. The stress of this blood loss can result in heart attack, hemorrhage, coma, seizure, stroke, or infection and the resulting deaths often get classified as such without any documentation or recognition that these were the direct result of a circumcision. That poor baby died from complications resulting from a circumcision, period, not cardiac arrest!
This lack of proper reporting has made it hard to document the actual number of deaths caused each year from circumcisions, but the reported number of newborns that die from circumcisions is said to be 117 baby boys a year. To put this number in prospective, about 44 newborns die each year from suffocation, 8 from auto accidents, and 115 from SIDS.
So why aren't there huge campaigns to educate parents about the risks of circumcision like there are about SIDS. How many times have we heard about "back to sleep"? You can't even leave the hospital without being personally instructed by the nurse to make sure you put baby on their back to prevent SIDS, but there is no warning when they come in to whisk your new baby boy off to be cut. Many parents aren't even aware that bleeding could be an issue until it is already to late.
I feel very strongly that parents should be educated about the risks involved in having their child circumcised. Education is the greatest tool in this battle. I know I hadn't even thought twice about having it done until someone handed me a pamphlet when I was pregnant. So the next time you have a chance, let someone know that there is no medical benefit to circumcising their son. That it is purely a cosmetic surgery that has many risks, including death. A little education can go a long way and you may just say a baby's life and prevent parents from having to deal with the loss of a child.
More articles:
New Study Estimates Neonatal Circumcision Death Rate Higher Than Suffocation and Auto Accidents
Death From Circumcision
National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (aka NOCIRC)
I just read about the tragic death of a baby that occurred this morning because he was circumcised. The poor baby had some heart issues which already made this a risky procedure, but the parents and doctor felt like the risk of bleeding would get worse as the baby grew and decided not to wait until he was bigger. Sadly, after hours of bleeding, they found that an artery had been nicked during the surgery. They were able to stop the bleeding, but the baby had lost a lot of blood. Last night the mother blogged that she had almost killed her baby. Tragically, he died this morning almost 12 hours after her post.
You don't have to be a parent to find this story extremely heartbreaking. I personally do not agree with circumcision, nor do I circumcise my children, but that is not what this post is about. I am not trying to start a debate about whether circumcision is right or not, or whether these parents who now morn the loss of their baby boy did the right thing. Their loss is too tragic and great and I will not judge them.
What has me so upset and angry is that his official cause of death was ruled to be cardiac arrest. The doctors have reassured the parents over and over that the circumcision had nothing to do with their son's death. I understand that they are probably trying to comfort the parents, but this is just not right.
A baby only needs to lose 1 ounce of blood to hemorrhage, and just 2.3 ounces to die as a result of this blood loss. The stress of this blood loss can result in heart attack, hemorrhage, coma, seizure, stroke, or infection and the resulting deaths often get classified as such without any documentation or recognition that these were the direct result of a circumcision. That poor baby died from complications resulting from a circumcision, period, not cardiac arrest!
This lack of proper reporting has made it hard to document the actual number of deaths caused each year from circumcisions, but the reported number of newborns that die from circumcisions is said to be 117 baby boys a year. To put this number in prospective, about 44 newborns die each year from suffocation, 8 from auto accidents, and 115 from SIDS.
So why aren't there huge campaigns to educate parents about the risks of circumcision like there are about SIDS. How many times have we heard about "back to sleep"? You can't even leave the hospital without being personally instructed by the nurse to make sure you put baby on their back to prevent SIDS, but there is no warning when they come in to whisk your new baby boy off to be cut. Many parents aren't even aware that bleeding could be an issue until it is already to late.
I feel very strongly that parents should be educated about the risks involved in having their child circumcised. Education is the greatest tool in this battle. I know I hadn't even thought twice about having it done until someone handed me a pamphlet when I was pregnant. So the next time you have a chance, let someone know that there is no medical benefit to circumcising their son. That it is purely a cosmetic surgery that has many risks, including death. A little education can go a long way and you may just say a baby's life and prevent parents from having to deal with the loss of a child.
More articles:
New Study Estimates Neonatal Circumcision Death Rate Higher Than Suffocation and Auto Accidents
Death From Circumcision
National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (aka NOCIRC)
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