Mommy's Favorite Things: The top reasons why we chose NOT to Circumcise!



Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The top reasons why we chose NOT to Circumcise!



I want to start off by saying that this post is 100% meant to be  informational. Every family needs to choose what is right for them. But I think that it needs to be an educated decision. Doing it because you think it's 'normal' is not good enough. You need to do the research on it and make a decision based off that and what's right for your family either emotionally, religiously, or for other personal reasons. But do research first PLEASE!!!

1. Watch This video below (get children out of the room) and you probably won't even need to see my other reasons!
At 3:50 the dr. actually says "Oh he's got himself upset" UH No. You just cut off sensitive skin without anesthetic and you think he's UPSET? He's IN PAIN!

2. Refer to video above. Most doctors don't use ANY form of anesthetic. No local, no nothing! The baby is fully awake and aware of the entire surgery. If a nurse comes in and tells you your baby slept through the whole thing, it's because the baby was in SHOCK! A baby's reaction to severe pain is to sleep.  

3. It isn't medically necessary... Enough said!

4. The foreskin has a TON of nerve endings in it. It makes sexual encounters a lot more pleasurable. Can you imagine being robbed of that? It makes it more pleasurable for women as well because of the gliding motion which helps keep the natural lubrication and prevents chafing.

5. Would you circumcise your little girl? Because that's what some cultures do. Cultures started circumcising boys because they thought it would stop masturbation... It spread like wildfire and everyone started doing it. But would you circumcise your daughter? We have a foreskin too...

6. The rate of circumcision is dramatically dropping. You think it might be normal to circumcise, but in reality it's about 70/30 (70% DON'T Circumcise, this as of 2009)... The west coast is a LOT lower. Nevada is 11% circumcise. Here in MI it is the highest at around 82%. Reason? Because MI is still Medicaid funded. In 1982 California made it so Medicaid didn't cover the procedure anymore. That's why the rate is so low.
In 2006 the rate was 56% circumcise. In 2009 it was 33% circumcise. So what is it now for 2011/2012??? Probably closer to 28% or so!!
http://mgmbill.org/statistics.htm
A boy is just as likely to get made fun of for being circumcised as he is for not.

7. It's not our choice. Just because we're the parents doesn't mean we can choose to mutilate our sons... I look at it this way... If Emerson wants to be circumcised later on, it's easy enough. If we had chosen to circumcise him and he didn't want that he can't get that undone! There are no other cosmetic surgeries that parents are permitted to perform on their children without their child's consent.

8. The Selling of Foreskins is a huge business. They are made into face creams. Is that where you want a body part of your son's to go?

9. Watch the video above again!
10. Watch the video just 1 more time!

Those are our main reasons for not circumcising!
Plus it's just darn easier! No need to keep the gauze and vaseline on it for the first couple days. You also do nothing special to it. Just wipe it off like a finger. No need to EVER pull it back! It will retract on it's own when the child gets older.

They say that not circumcising can cause more UTIs and infections. Um I'm sorry, we get UTIs and we get an antibiotic. Is it really such a big deal to take an antibiotic? Come on now...
Doesn't this face look just as happy as any other baby you've seen?



There's a few more just ludicrous reasons, but I'll skip all those. 
Do your research. Google around and make the decision that is right for your family!


19 comments:


Shannon said...

Yes, that baby looks just as happy as any other baby out there :) And just as cute. I recently saw somebody else post something like this and they were completely attacked about their decision. I applaud you for doing the research first and making the decision that is best for your baby and your family.

I am due in June and if we have a boy, we haven't made a decision on what we will do yet.

Saw you needed comments so thought I'd pop on in. If you want to check out my page, I'd appreciate it. http://www.HousesByShannon.blogspot.com


Clara said...

I know this is really boring and you are skipping to the next comment, but I just wanted to throw you a big thanks - you cleared up some things for me :) Amazing pics and video!


loven mommy said...

when we were pregnant i had always assumed we'd just do it. then my husband talked to to his guys at work. we were the 4th boy being born that year out of 6 employees. the other 3 had all left their boys not. i think a good thing to do if you're going to google to help you decide is to also google reasons to circumcise. if you just google reasons not to then you get a lot of one sided sites that force the opinion, but you want to cut there are also lots of sites that will give you resons to support your choice. don't just get scared by the video. you are the parent and sometimes there are tough decisions to make. i don't normally advertise my choice, if it comes up in conversation with others i like to be able to back it, so i made sure i did research and had reasons to back my choice for those who protested... and yes there are plenty who will be offended by your choice my parents were the most offended of anyone i've told. most younger moms i talked to said they would have opted to cut had it been covered by insurance. and the others said the only reason they didn't was cuz of the video. you can choose the doctor that preforms it by finding someone who uses pain med. rather then thinking of short term pain for our baby we looked at long term even into old age and that's what made up our minds.


Ashley said...

I agree that it's a personal choice, but to be fair, not all circumcisions are like this. When we got our son's done, he received 3 types of pain relief... tylenol, a topical numbing cream, and a local anesthetic. My husband went in with him, and the procedure was done in less than 30 seconds. And our son DID sleep through it!

I feel like recently it's the mothers/parents that DO circumcise their children that are getting criticized, told we are mutilating our sons, bashed for our decisions... NOT that you did that here, but I have read other blogs that have. It's everyone's choice, whether for religious reasons, personal choice, whatever, my choices are not 'yours' (being the world on whole) to weigh in on.


Unknown said...

Right now my husband and I only have one child-a daughter, but we have decided if we were to have a son, he will not be circumcised. Why? 1. It's unnecessary. 2. It does come with risks involved.


The Trophy Wife said...

I know that it definitely is someone's right to make the choice for their child. I know plenty of people who have and who have not. I know many men that have and haven't. And I asked them all their views before making the decision for our son. The only reason I'm commenting is because I just have to point out problems with your points #3, #4 and #5.

#3 - It *can* be medically necessary. Without circumcision, you have to take extra measures to keep the area clean. Otherwise there can be many problems. My grandfather was not circumcised and as an older man it caused him to have many, many problems with bladder infections and other infections. It was so bad that he ended up having to have a circumcision as an older gentleman. I am sure that he would have wished that he could have had it as a baby when you won't remember a thing. But I would not want to wish that type of experience on anyone.

Not only that, but uncircumcised men cause higher rates of vaginal infections in their partners too. So, I would say that medically, it could be necessary.

#4 - There is absolutely NO proof that it causes more pleasure in sex. It is just a theory....and I'm sure that any men you ask will tell you that sex is pleasurable whether they are circumcised or not.

#5 - Girl circumcision are not the same and they should not in any way be compared. We have different genitalia that work very differently. Our "Foreskin" is in no way like the male foreskin. I'm kind of offended that you would try to reach that far to make a comparison. Especially since female circumcisions are used in countries that severely abuse women.

So to be truly "100%" informative, you really need to be careful how you point out those points and give good information on both sides. But as far as sharing your personal opinion....thank you, it is nice to know what you decided and why.


Ashley said...

Congratulations on making an informed decision! That is the most important thing here, however I do not agree with circumcision at all.

I disagree with all of The Trophy Wife's points. Regarding point #1 - Here's one for ya...if SO many women these days are getting breast cancer. why don't we just cut off their breasts when girls start to develop them? We cut our boys because they *might* develop more UTIs.....same concept in my opinion. Taking a drastic measure to prevent something that may never occur (and probably won't) is just not the way to live.

Let's let our boys make the choice when they are old enough to make an informed decision of their own.

Check out this article (among many others from this blog) that show how the head of a penis is SUPPOSED to look like. Moist and more sensitive. The wrinkly, calloused penis of the circumcised is NOT how God (or nature, whatever you believe) intended it to be. - http://www.drmomma.org/2011/08/intact-or-circumcised-significant.html

(By the way, before our son was born, I assumed we would circumcise because that's just "what you do". I'm SO thankful my husband talked me out of it. He's circumcised and didn't want the same for our son.)


Heather S said...

It is not medically necessary. He didn't clean himself properly. The only difference is that they have to pull it back in the shower and wash it. It takes an extra 2 seconds...
There is proof that it does not cause a higher risk of STDs for the male.

Men are abused in countries where male circumcision started too. So yes, I think it is a good comparison. We both have a foreskin. Even if it serves a different purpose it has the same name, so is very similar.

There may not be 'proof' but I watched a special on tv in the past and this guy made a weight to help him grow a foreskin back. He said it was MUCH more pleasurable with his wife. because there's extra skin that moves over the head it feel better for the male.
But he still lost that foreskin that has thousands of sensitive nerve endings.

The foreskin in a male is like the clitoris of a woman. If you lost that you would lose a ton of nerve endings and it just wouldn't feel the same sexually.


Heather S said...

Thank you, Ashley. You said those better than I could!


Ashley said...

Heather, while the foreskin does have lots of nerve endings, I'm pretty sure it is the head of the penis that loses the most sensation since the foreskin is gone... If you check out the link I posted in comment #7, the head of an uncircumcised penis almost looks like the female clitoris and is considered a mucous membrane or glans. Similar to the "hood" a clitoris has, without protection from foreskin the circumcised penis develops a thick callous, resulting in less sensation, thus making your point #4 totally true. Penises are MEANT to be covered by foreskin to keep the glans moist and without are forced to also endure uncomfortable chaffing among other side effects.

And yes, there are men who are trying to restore their foreskins because they feel robbed. Check out Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreskin_restoration
It's sad to think that this is something even out there, but because of circumcision a lot of men have resorted to this.


Anastasia said...

We haven't circumcised our boy for many of the same reasons :) Our first was a girl.


Unknown said...

I have pretty much the same reasons for not circumcising my son. And while i was pregnant I asked around to see how common it actually was and found out most boys are not circumcised so it's not really as common as i thought it was. Maybe it's because I live in California.


Heather S said...

I will add that is is ONLY medically necessary in cases like cancer, gangrene etc. Just like any other body part!


.:karen:. said...

That had me bawling...And I couldn't even finish watching. That poor, poor baby. I shudder just thinking about that. I am so glad we had two girls, but this has solidified my decision that if we were to have an "oops" and it turned out to be a boy, he would definitely not be getting circumsized. :(


Heather S said...

So glad it made an impact on someone!


Beth R said...

Thank you for posting this!! I feel like if we make people more informed they can make a better decision. I still to this day regret that we had our first son circumsized and the second one is not. I felt a lot of pressure to do our first and after doing a ton of research I realized that there is no point and if he wants to do it later on he can do that. It is not medically necessary and it requires no more attention than you would a circumsized penis.I have one of each and after I did the first, wish I could go back and change it. I mean honestly why put your son at risk of dying (yes it has happened) from a procedure that is not medically necessary! I will never make that mistake again!


Julie Jordan Scott said...

I couldn't watch the video. My son who is 11 is whole. Thank Goodness!

I read your post from today.. I think all the posts are fantastic. It is so refreshing to see people actually LISTEN to each other!


Anonymous said...


You're so cool! I don't think I have read through anything like this before. So wonderful to find somebody with a few original thoughts on this topic. Seriously.. many thanks for starting this up. This website is something that's needed on the internet, someone with a bit of originality!


Heather S said...

Thank you, Anonymous! I really appreciate it!