Please share your experience of circumcision. Are you circumcised? Are you intact and have been pressured to be circumcised? How do you feel about your partner's foreskin or lack thereof? Did you have one of your children circumcised? Were you surprised by the result? Do you regret your decision? Please share your feelings and experiences.
One local man wrote a research paper called Circumcision in America.
Here is what some local mothers said of circumcision:
"Allowing my sons to be circumcised is the
greatest regret of my life. They had no say in whether or not a piece of their
bodies was cut off, and now there's no way to undo it, no way to take it back
or fix it. I had no right to take that choice away from them. I can only hope
now that they will forgive me." - G.B.
"Circumcising my oldest son is the most regretful
decision I have ever made. One of the most guilt ridden decisions with the
highest consequences that I do not even have to bare. My son forever bears
those consequences, while I forever bear the guilt of violating his human
rights. However, I find comfort in knowing no regret or guilt from leaving our
second son intact. I only hope my oldest finds comfort in knowing that it’s
because of him that his brother was saved and can forgive me for not fighting
hard enough for him." - E.H.
"Research and think before you let someone cut
your precious baby boy. It is an utterly useless procedure that you will regret
with all your heart." - T.O.
"You don’t know the meaning of guilt until you
have to have your son’s circumcision fixed. It’s not harmless and it’s not
risk-free. There’s nothing worse than watching your son be put under general
anesthesia to fix a mistake you chose in the first place." - S.D.P.
“I wish that someone would’ve given me more information
when I was pregnant with my first son. I was so uneducated about circumcision.
To me it was just what everyone did: I didn’t even occur to me that there was
another option. I thought it was as simple as snipping the umbilical cord. Now
that I know what circumcision entails, what the foreskin’s purpose is, and what
I have chosen for my son, it has become the biggest regret of my life. I can
never give back what was taken from him. I was lucky that he healed properly
and didn’t suffer any complications, because they gave me no care instructions
at the hospital and I had no idea the issues that could’ve occurred. His
circumcision definitely complicated the establishment of our breastfeeding
relationship. We were working on developing his latch and the whole day and a
half following his circumcision I could not wake him to nurse. I was very
determined and luckily we finally figured it out but I know it wouldn’t have
been so challenging if he wasn’t recovering from the trauma he experienced.
When my second son was born, we chose to keep him whole, the way he was born
and meant to stay. It has been so much less emotional and complicated and does
not require anything of me.” - A.T.
"In the hospital when I had Z***
I had never even thought about circumcision until I was in labor. The nurse was
filling out all the paper work and when she asked, I asked my Mom, N***, and
the two nurses; and they all said: ‘definitely, don’t even think twice’. It
took two weeks to get him to nurse. (pumped round the clock in the meantime)
Unfortunately, I was so uneducated about it that I didn’t even think that it
could possibly be the reason he wasn’t nursing. Then I had Jackson, didn’t think twice about it and did
it again. (He’s almost 5) He came back from his circumcision, and I didn’t know
where his penis had gone. They told me I would have to push down the sides to
make it pop out. Fortunately, it corrected at 3. That’s when I become educated,
and I really don’t believe that I actually allowed that to happen to the two of
them. It makes me sick to see videos, and I can’t believe to this day (I have
two L and D friends) that they still tell parents it’s the thing to do for
boys. I educated both of them and told them that their response should be that no
health organization recommends routine circumcision, that this is a completely
cosmetic procedure, and let the parents choose. When I brought it up to them
they fought me on it, but I think they have come around. Unfortunately, parents
look at them as the professionals when all they are doing is giving an opinion.
Sad." - A.S. |