Circumcision, To do or Not To do

5^th of July 2011 (26 weeks 2 days)

Hello Dear Readers!! 

Today I want to write about a subject that really gets to me. Since before we knew we were having a boy we already had a question going through our minds. Will we decide to circumcise him or not?

If you are not from the United States you might wonder why circumcision is such a big deal. I wondered for a long time. Being part of online forums and reading pregnancy books encourages future parents to think about the issue. Here, our maternity booklet suggests not getting boys circumcised unless it’s for religion reasons but in other parts of the world it’s very recommended by doctors and professionals to get their baby boys circumcised. 

Here are some of the reasons we found that might be in favour or circumcision (excluding religious reasons). 

-          It’s cleaner

-          It reduces the risk of infections

-          It reduces the risk to catch AIDS

-          It looks “normal” since “most” boys in the USA are circumcised

Here are some reasons we found that encourage boys not to get circumcised.

-          It’s not cleaner

-          It doesn’t reduce the risk of infections

-          It doesn’t reduce the risk to catch AIDS

-          Most boys here aren’t circumcised

Sounds promising, doesn’t it? We quickly figured out that there is no argument that confirms or disaffirms that circumcision is better for boys. None of the reasons used to circumcise boys is scientifically proven and there is no evidence that there really are benefits to circumcise. Of course extremists might say otherwise but if you really do your research you’ll come to the conclusion that it’s not very conclusive. That means one thing; it’s up to parents to decide whether or not they will circumcise their boys. 

It’s starting to really get to me that parents don’t respect other parent’s choices concerning this personal subject. It doesn’t make you a bad parent if you decide to circumcise. You are doing what you believe is right for your child. As a parent it’s one of the decisions you need to take. If you decide not to do it, it’s also fine. You also think you are doing the very best for your child. So why don’t people just respect one another and just let parent’s do whatever they believe in.

In our case, we decided not to get Noah circumcised. We think it’s not necessary and that it’s still some kind of medical procedure. We believe that boys were born that way for a reason. We don’t want to make him go through something that will be painful and not useful in the long term.  We just don’t think that Noah will one day regret that we didn’t get him circumcised but he might regret that we did get him circumcised. What if surgery doesn’t go as planned? What if it’s not well done. Sure it’s rare but it still happens. If he wants to do it, he’ll do it later on. As far as I am concerned as long as he’s able to pee he’s good. If sadly we have a problem there, I will have no problem getting him circumcised because I will have a good reason to. 

I might want to also add that for families who think “everyone must look alike down there” it’s totally not our case. I read way too many times that dads are the only ones dealing with this issue. If the dad is circumcised, baby boy is. In our case, that situation turned out to be the opposite. Daddy is Daddy and Baby is baby. I don’t think he will be traumatized by that as a fact, I don’t think it’s in Daddy’s personality to go around and show his genitals (do you remember seeing your parent’s genitals- Never in my case). 

I really had to get that off my heart. I will not circumcise my boy for all the reasons mentioned above. Another couple might decide to circumcise their boy because of the total opposite reasons and you know what- IT’S FINE!! As long as you believe that what you are doing is for your child’s best interest. 

We are all parents/ parents-to-be, let’s not fight over something so personal. To each their own.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to write this out, I hope it changes how some people perceive others…I know that I had to change my opinion a couple of times and that lastly, that’s what I concluded.