# Is circumcision still painful?



## drs0410 (Dec 3, 2010)

My son isn't circumcised, and I'm so relieved that I did my research when I was pregnant. Whether it's painful or not, it's still unreasonable to strap down a child and cut off a healthy part of his penis for no good reason.

I'm only asking if it's still painful out of curiosity. Some of the other message boards I've seen have people saying that the videos of babies being tortured without any pain medicine are outdated and used to scare parents. They often say their babies slept right through the circumcision. I've also seen videos where the baby is injected with pain medicine at the base of his penis and doesn't feel what's happening.

So which is it? Are babies normally tortured or is it likely that babies being born today will receive pain medication?


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## Lauren82 (Feb 26, 2007)

Most babies do not receive any sort of pain medication at all because it is risky to use it with a newborn. I once read somewhere that even when the injections are used, it does not stop all of the pain. Babies appear to be sleeping through it because they basically shut down from the pain and go into shock.

I saw 5 circs all right in a row, live and in person, and every single baby cried and screamed and made noises that I have never heard babies make before. I can't imagine that any of them sleep. Ever. None received pain medication because the doctor said that they don't feel the circ.

It is cruel. It always has been and always will be. Even with injections, can you imagine how painful it would be to have them in your genital area and then still feel part of your flesh being ripped, crushed and cut off? Then to sit with a raw wound in a diaper until it heals.... Not good.


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## drs0410 (Dec 3, 2010)

How did you see 5 circumcisions? Are you a nurse?

I just want to believe that the babies of parents who don't know any better have some kind of pain relief.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Lauren82*
> 
> Most babies do not receive any sort of pain medication at all because it is risky to use it with a newborn. I once read somewhere that even when the injections are used, it does not stop all of the pain. Babies appear to be sleeping through it because they basically shut down from the pain and go into shock.
> 
> ...


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## sosurreal09 (Nov 20, 2009)

umm I witnessed 3 in a row at Brigham and Woman's...no pain meds...gave them suga, in a room off the nursery area. It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed happen to a baby. they screamed bloody murder it was absolutely sickening. I witnessed this on a field trip in 12th grade in my allied health program.


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## Fellow Traveler (Jan 8, 2008)

It depends on the doctor and hospital policies but even if they are given such a medication, there is the healing. But that's all irrelevant anyway, your first paragraph sums up why very well. We could make all sorts of procedures painless, but that doesn't make them ethical or right.


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## major_mama11 (Apr 13, 2008)

I have seen quite a few circs as a nurse. I have seen only ONE baby sleep through it start to finish, and this was with lidocaine injections that the doctor was patient enough to wait for it to take effect.

At my place of work, most of the docs use bilateral lidocaine injections at the base of the penis (one or two were using just EMLA cream, but they no longer do circs, thank goodness). Lidocaine does seem to give decent pain relief, if properly placed, but the problem is that most of the doctors don't seem to wait long enough for the numbing to be complete.

The majority of them scream *horridly* at first, and then seem to fall asleep d/t basically shutting themselves off, as Lauren82 stated. Afterwards, they can't even have Tylenol, due to the risk. After the lidocaine wears off, they are so raw, and many scream in pain whenever the air hits their diaper area. It's pretty sad.


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## major_mama11 (Apr 13, 2008)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Fellow Traveler*
> 
> It depends on the doctor and hospital policies but even if they are given such a medication, there is the healing. But that's all irrelevant anyway, your first paragraph sums up why very well. *We could make all sorts of procedures painless, but that doesn't make them ethical or right.*


My thoughts exactly.


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## goinggreengirl (Nov 7, 2009)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *major_mama11*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> ...


I totally agree.


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## ElliesMomma (Sep 21, 2006)

i know you're not a circumciser, thank goodness. but this statement reflects how all parents who circumcise feel. and it's a big part of the problem of why the practice continues.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *drs0410*
> 
> I just want to believe that the babies of parents who don't know any better have some kind of pain relief.


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## PuppyFluffer (Mar 18, 2002)

I know someone who is a nurse and she is very anti circumcision. She has seen many of them done. She said, in her experience, when anesthetic is injected, the doctors begin the procedure almost immediately, saying "let's get this over with". She said that the docs don't like doing them and just want to get them done quickly. So, the poor kid gets the lidocaine injections, which sting like HOLY HELL if they are anything like what I got when I got my hand stitched up, then have to endure the cutting and ripping and cutting without the full effect of the anesthetic. It's horrible that this is done to human beings and that anyone can be present and allow it.


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## an_aurora (Jun 2, 2006)

I have seen hundreds of circumcisions, and every single baby screamed frantically through at least part of the procedure. All the pediatricians at our hospital use lidocaine, but none wait--they all inject and immediately begin the circ.


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## luckymamaoftwo (May 25, 2010)

SO, SO thankful that we didn't put our beautiful son through such a horrific thing, just days after being welcomed into this world.


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## CookAMH (Jun 2, 2008)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *luckymamaoftwo*
> 
> SO, SO thankful that we didn't put our beautiful son through such a horrific thing, just days after being welcomed into this world.


That's what I have thought and felt SO MANY times these last 20 months of our son's life. My heart ACHES when I imagine what could have been done to him.


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## SashaBreeze (Apr 18, 2009)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *an_aurora*
> 
> I have seen hundreds of circumcisions, and every single baby screamed frantically through at least part of the procedure.


I was told by the OB that I went to for my second child that this happens because "Babies just dont like being strapped down but other than that they are fine."


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## Galatea (Jun 28, 2004)

I believe that there is a place in the afterlife or karma or whatever you want to call it for the people who circumcise babies/children/anyone without their express permission. What part of your soul do you have to kill to be able to do that to another living being?


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## buckeyedoc (Nov 9, 2006)

A friend of mine had her son circumcised in September and said it was just awful and that she will never get the image out of her mind, so I would say that "modern" pain relief is still not adequate.


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## Night_Nurse (Nov 23, 2007)

Another nurse here...I spent over a decade working as an RN in Obstetrics and also witnessed circumcisions as a nursing student. So I've seen circs by various doctors, various techniques and meds used. But I have never once seen a baby not cry through a circ, with or without pain meds. The ones I witnessed who did get a dorsal penile block did seem to cry less, but they still cried. I do believe some of them going into a shock like state. Umm, yeah, babies don't like being undressed and strapped down. Sure, they fuss a bit when it happens but the cry is nothing like when the clamping and cutting start.


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## sosurreal09 (Nov 20, 2009)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Night_Nurse*
> 
> Another nurse here...I spent over a decade working as an RN in Obstetrics and also witnessed circumcisions as a nursing student. So I've seen circs by various doctors, various techniques and meds used. But I have never once seen a baby not cry through a circ, with or without pain meds. The ones I witnessed who did get a dorsal penile block did seem to cry less, but they still cried. I do believe some of them going into a shock like state. Umm, yeah, babies don't like being undressed and strapped down. Sure, they fuss a bit when it happens but the cry is nothing like when the clamping and cutting start.


seriously that is the truth


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## outlier (Sep 29, 2008)

I delivered ds at the largest teaching hospital in my state, and at our prenatal birth prep class the L&D nurse who taught it said to be sure to request anesthetic for the circ because not all doctors use it. (It still blows my mind that no one seemed to think this was bad or even unusual. She might as well have announced that they don't use anesthesia for baths.) Later on, one of the moms who was planning to circ asked if it hurt, and to her credit the nurse said, "Oh yes, it hurts. It's painful like labor." She then went on to explain that once the clamp was applied or the plastibell string was tied, the nerves were crushed and "then it won't hurt anymore."


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## Pirogi (Apr 5, 2007)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *outlier*
> 
> I delivered ds at the largest teaching hospital in my state, and at our prenatal birth prep class the L&D nurse who taught it said to be sure to request anesthetic for the circ because not all doctors use it. (It still blows my mind that no one seemed to think this was bad or even unusual. She might as well have announced that they don't use anesthesia for baths.) Later on, one of the moms who was planning to circ asked if it hurt, and to her credit the nurse said, "Oh yes, it hurts. It's painful like labor." She then went on to explain that once the clamp was applied or the plastibell string was tied, the nerves were crushed and "then it won't hurt anymore."


Wow. Yeah, because when you lose a finger, or gouge out a part of your skin, or any other accident where you lose flesh, it definitely doesn't hurt.


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## drs0410 (Dec 3, 2010)

Reading these replies has me feeling even more relieved that my son never had to go through that. I can't believe that this is still going on. What's really horrible is that the medical community often leads ignorant parents to believe that they're doing what's best for their sons. Parents think their babies have to go through this torture to avoid diseases, infections, and humiliation in the future.Why isn't anyone taking the time to educate those doctors so that they can provide better information to the parents?


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## kythe (Dec 20, 2007)

I went through nursing school in 2006 and witnessed a circumcision where lidocaine was used. The baby didn't cry at all, just whimpered a little and squirmed when they were tying him to the board.

Our instructor was very pro-circ and explained that she has watched them for the last 30 years without anesthesia and babies always "do fine". Sure, they scream, but they do that just from being tied down. She continued to explain that she sees no purpose in anesthesia, its just to make the parents feel better.

The thing is, she was explaining this *during* this baby's circumcision. We were watching him not scream from being tied down, he wasn't screaming at all because he wasn't in pain. Some of the students pointed this out, but the instructer seemed not to notice.

A different instructor, and incidentally the only male instructor in our program, was very anti-circ. He actually influenced some students against circ by agreeing with them that pain relief does matter and that babies are not just crying from being held down. He said we would scream too if someone cut off the most sensitive part of our body without pain relief. Some students were very influenced by him because he was a man and they felt he had more empathy than the female pro-circ instructor who didn't care that babies scream when anesthesia is not used.


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## Pirogi (Apr 5, 2007)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kythe*
> 
> I went through nursing school in 2006 and witnessed a circumcision where lidocaine was used. The baby didn't cry at all, just whimpered a little and squirmed when they were tying him to the board.
> 
> ...


I actually might sort of agree with this bolded sentiment, strangely enough. An adult WILL have adequate pain relief during circumcision, and if it's not adequate, he has the capacity to let someone know. But, he is an adult, and I would imagine his options for pain relief are a lot different (more extensive, more effective) than for an infant. I wonder if the "pain relief" used in RIC really is pain relief, even when properly done and when the circumciser waits an appropriate amount of time to begin forcibly separating the glans from the foreskin.

Where your female circumciser and I differ is that I could never agree that an infant is capable of being "fine" with having his foreskin ripped from his glans and amputated without any pain relief.


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## kythe (Dec 20, 2007)

In this particular case, I think anesthesia was effective. Maybe she had seen cases where anesthesia was not used effectively, but it bothers me that she doesn't see this as a fault with the anesthesia. She sees this as evidence that babies don't feel pain at all since they are just screaming as a normal part of the position they are placed in.


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## QueenOfTheMeadow (Mar 25, 2005)

Just a quick reminder of the forum guidelines:
Quote:


> This is not a space to bash others. In an effort to minimize language which might alienate those seeking information, we are cautious about using pejorative terms such as abuse, barbarism, mutilation, etc. when routinely discussing circumcision. Let the facts speak for themselves


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## Lauren82 (Feb 26, 2007)

This is to the OP. I couldn't get the quote thing to work right.

I saw circs when I was taking the classes to be a nurse aide. I was planning on going to nursing school to become a nurse midwife eventually. Our class got to spend the day at a very large inner city hospital and I ended up shadowing nurses in the nursery. It just so happened that an OB came in to perform circs and "my" nurse had to assist. I was only 17 years old when I saw them. I went into that room clueless and walked out an intactivist. I don't think I've witnessed anything else in my life that stunned and horrified me as much as that did.


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## major_mama11 (Apr 13, 2008)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *drs0410*
> 
> Reading these replies has me feeling even more relieved that my son never had to go through that. I can't believe that this is still going on. What's really horrible is that the medical community often leads ignorant parents to believe that they're doing what's best for their sons. Parents think their babies have to go through this torture to avoid diseases, infections, and humiliation in the future.*Why isn't anyone taking the time to educate those doctors so that they can provide better information to the parents?*


Here is the thing that boggles my mind, at my place of work (90%+ circ rate): even when presented with more info, parents, especially dads, here seem dead set on circ. Maybe the only answer would be for docs to just refuse to perform them.

I have been present many times when one of our (younger) pediatricians at work talks to the parents and obtains consent for the circumcision she is about to do. She *always* explains that there is no medical reason at all for circumcision, and that it is purely a cosmetic procedure. I have even seen her reiterate the cosmetic procedure aspect to a dad who was present as his infant was being strapped to the board. But I have never seen a dad change his mind about consenting to the procedure. (I've seen plenty of moms cringe, but then they still tend to defer to the dad's wishes).


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## Galatea (Jun 28, 2004)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *major_mama11*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> ...


Which goes to show that it is not about logic at all, which we knew - it is about hurt people hurting people.


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## PlainandTall (May 21, 2010)

Sorry posting from a phone cant post links. Google "stang snellman circumcision practice patterns" for a pain relief survey among various specialties in various usa regions. This was published in the AAP journal, pediatrics.
Google "anna taddio circumcision" for a study on the long term consequences of circumcision trauma. Even children who had some pain relief for circumcision showed worse reactions to 6mo. vax. Than children never circumcised.


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## SashaBreeze (Apr 18, 2009)

Here are the links you wanted posted (i think) Plainand Tall

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/101/6/e5

and

http://www.cirp.org/library/pain/taddio2/

also OMG I was pretty much horrified at my home states % when I checked out the first link. I figured it would be bad, but wow. Seems the OB's are particularly bad about not giving any type of anesthesia.


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## nd_deadhead (Sep 22, 2005)

I've had lidocaine injections - they hurt like crazy.

My son had 5 stitches in his hand when he was 12 or 13. He got 2 shots of lidocaine before the stitches (with adequate time for the hand to feel numb). After 3 stitches, he could feel again, and the doctor reached for the lidocaine needle. My son stopped her - he said he'd rather feel the stitches than get another injection.

The circumcision itself might hurt a lot less with a DPNB, but the lodicaine injection surely must hurt.


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## sosurreal09 (Nov 20, 2009)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *nd_deadhead*
> 
> I've had lidocaine injections - they hurt like crazy.
> 
> ...


when I was 9 a dog ripped off my bottom lip...seriously and I got 96 stitches. I had a TON of lidocaine shots and mid-way i felt everything and I said the same thing just keep stitching b/c the shot hurt so much worse.


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## buckeyedoc (Nov 9, 2006)

My older son got a nerve block to his finger when he was 2 years old, because it was fractured and needed the nail to be put back in place with stitches. He went crazy over the injection and was a screaming, sweaty mess.









The only answer is just don't have the circumcision done. So simple!


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## nsmomtobe (Aug 22, 2009)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Lauren82*
> 
> Even with injections, can you imagine how painful it would be to have them in your genital area and then still feel part of your flesh being ripped, crushed and cut off?


I could feel ever stitch I received after delivering my son, even though I received numbing injections. When I told the doctor I could feel it, she said, "You ARE frozen, but it's a sensitive area so you are going to feel it. There's nothing more we can do for you. You'll just have to deal with the pain." Then they gave me ibuprofen, tylenol-3 and laughing gas to distract me as I screamed with each stitch.


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## Lauren82 (Feb 26, 2007)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *NSmomtobe*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> ...


I'm so sorry you had to go through that.


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## Crunchy Frog (Aug 24, 2008)

Yes, it is still painful. And yes, you do see that arguement on other message boards and there is some kernel of truth to it.

It is in fact now standard of care to use some kind of pain control for circumcision, and I would guess that at the current date a majority of newborn circs are done with some kind of pain control. I believe that even ten years ago the majority were done with no pain control at all. So this much is true. The other thing that you see on the message boards; that they were there for their son's circ and he really wasn't in pain is probably true in many cases as well. I would guess that doctors who are comfortable having parents in the room for a circ are much more likely than most doctors to actually use pain relief effectively.

However, I think that in the majority of newborn circs the baby is still in extreme pain. Firstly, even if a majority of docs now use some pain control, there is a very substantial minority who still use nothing at all. Secondly, of the docs who do use something, I believe that the majority either do not use an effective form (they may use a sucrose paci and call it pain control, or use EMLA cream alone which has almost no effect on the pain), or else, as has been pointed out on other posts, they use Lidocaine injections but don't place them properly or don't wait for them to take effect or both. The parents who post that they were there and the baby didn't seem to be in pain are a self selected minority who used the doctors who are most likely to use pain relief effectively. Their experiences may be valid for themselves and their babies, but they are not representative of what circ is like in the majority of cases.

My only personal experience in this area is from hanging around my own OB's office during my high risk twin pregnancy. He does them in his office rather than in the newborn nursery and apparently does use an injection of lidocaine (I heard a nurse say that to a weeping mother as she was relinquishing her son). I was there for one circ where I watched a baby get taken away and was wailing and clearly miserable when he was brought back. On another occasion I was waiting in an exam room and could hear as a baby was brought back to be circed. The soundproofing was heavy and the sound was very muffled and distant, but that baby was clearly screaming and in intense pain. So I would say that in the case of my own OB, he uses anesthetic but does not use it effectively, and the babies that he circs are in extreme pain during and after the surgery. My guess is that this is pretty much the norm for circs done in this country today.

So yeah, the vids of circs being done with NO anesthetic whatsoever are outdated in that they are probably in the minority now, but it is still the case that most babies being circed are still experiencing something akin to torture.

I am hoping to go to nursing school soon and I expect I will witness circs in person then. At that point I guess that I will get a better idea of what they are really like.

One of the nurses in my babies' NICU, when she found out I wasn't circing, told me that they were "barbaric" and "horrible" and that it was the only thing she ever saw in nursing that made her pass out.


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## Pirogi (Apr 5, 2007)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Crunchy Frog*
> 
> Yes, it is still painful. And yes, you do see that arguement on other message boards and there is some kernel of truth to it.
> 
> It is in fact now standard of care to use some kind of pain control for circumcision, and I would guess that at the current date a majority of newborn circs are done with some kind of pain control.


From the 1998 Pediatrics study (questionnaire, so take it for what you will) linked above:

Quote:


> A total of 67% of the doctors in the West are using anesthetics, which is significantly more than their counterparts in the other regions of the country (45% in the Midwest, 37% in the South, and 28% in the Northeast; _P_ < .0001)


I wonder what the percentages are today.

Also, the study says that between 75-90% of circumcisers who use pain relief use a DPNB, depending on where they live.

The reasons cited in the survey by circumcisers who don't use pain relief make me ill.


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## kythe (Dec 20, 2007)

When my dd was born in 2000, we were looking for a ped who would circ if (she was a boy). I remember asking her ped if she used pain relief. She said, "Of course!" and implied that pain relief was the norm, there was nothing to worry about. I didn't ask what kind, or how they do it, since obviously we didn't get that far. But I still believe her, at least in intent. She also was a very young doctor, so she wasn't conditioned from years of training and experience with not using anesthesia as the norm. She may have learned and witnessed appropriate use of anesthesia even from medical school.

I still don't know what the reality is vs the selling point to parents, but it wouldn't surprise me if newer doctors are better trained in this now and those that don't use anesthesia are more "old school". If it isn't entirely true now, I think things are gradually moving in that direction.


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## sosurreal09 (Nov 20, 2009)

when I witnessed those circs at the Brigham and womans they gave the babies sugar, seriously, and this was 2007!


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## T-man's Mama (Jun 22, 2010)

I am glad that my son did not experience such a trauma, but you know, this alone is not really satisfying. He is just one of thousands of babies born every day in the US. Knowing that poor little baby boys are being tortured in this way day in and day out makes my heart ache. I don't care that they are not my sons, or that I will never meet most of them. The sad fact that this torture is still legal and commonplace is simply maddening and inexcusable. I just wish people would come to their senses and just.stop.cutting.babies. How can anyone in their right mind think it is not painful? Good lord.


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## notkept (Nov 7, 2006)

I am a nursing student. I'm also the mother of a five year old intact boy. WITH a GIANT fight from his father. I wonder if I'm no longer kept partially because I refused circ for my kid. lol

I had my OB rotation this last semester. I took my instructor aside on our orientation/tour day and said "Dr.P, will I have to participate in a circumcision? I'm very nervous about this. I'm very opposed medically and personally." And, no, I didn't have to. She assured me right there. It never actually came up and none of my classmates had to either. But, had it come up, I was comfortable in referring to that earlier conversation. I go to a SMALL school in a SMALL area. The burbs of the burbs if you will. My "crunchy" views first came up in CNA class, we all have to have it to enter our nursing program. The instructor made some BAD points about circ. I gently corrected. Classmates asked questions. I answered. We moved on. It was all very PC. Then we went drinking after our final and I made my best nursing school friend. HE is now also friends with my new husband. He told me, when I asked him about his opinion on circ when other classmates brought it up "Are you kidding me!? We're Mexican! We don't do that!"

My point, the world is turning, thank GOD, and it's easier NOW even than it was five years ago when my son was born to say NO and have it accepted. Nursing schools are still not perfect in their education, but they are working toward being more factual in the info they give to their students.


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## erin23kate (Apr 16, 2009)

Even if there were a way to make the circumcision surgery itself painless (and I doubt there is), that doesn't cover the post-op period.

I had a teeny-tiny "skidmark" after labor, not even a tear, and peeing brought tears to my eyes for almost 2 weeks. I can't imagine the pain for a baby, peeing in his diaper and into an open wound. Poor babies can't even have tylenol.

An adult circumcision would be done under serious anesthesia (potentially even general anesthesia, if requested) and the man would be given several days' supply of vicodin or other opiates for the post-op pain. Plus, they know what is happening to them and can rationalize it and understand, can pee into a cup of water to dilute, can spend time without their newly exposed glans rubbing against everything. All the baby knows is that it hurts to pee, and hurts every time they move.

I will never forget the sound of babies being cut after I delivered David. It was the sound of torture, plain and simple. I cannot respect that choice.


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## SashaBreeze (Apr 18, 2009)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *erin23kate*
> 
> Even if there were a way to make the circumcision surgery itself painless (and I doubt there is), that doesn't cover the post-op period.
> 
> I had a teeny-tiny "skidmark" after labor, not even a tear, and peeing brought tears to my eyes for almost 2 weeks. I can't imagine the pain for a baby, peeing in his diaper and into an open wound. Poor babies can't even have tylenol.


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## PlainandTall (May 21, 2010)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *erin23kate*
> 
> Even if there were a way to make the circumcision surgery itself painless (and I doubt there is), that doesn't cover the post-op period.
> 
> ...


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## MoonJelly (Sep 10, 2004)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *major_mama11*
> 
> Here is the thing that boggles my mind, at my place of work (90%+ circ rate): even when presented with more info, parents, especially dads, here seem dead set on circ. Maybe the only answer would be for docs to just refuse to perform them.
> 
> I have been present many times when one of our (younger) pediatricians at work talks to the parents and obtains consent for the circumcision she is about to do. She *always* explains that there is no medical reason at all for circumcision, and that it is purely a cosmetic procedure. I have even seen her reiterate the cosmetic procedure aspect to a dad who was present as his infant was being strapped to the board. But I have never seen a dad change his mind about consenting to the procedure. (I've seen plenty of moms cringe, but then they still tend to defer to the dad's wishes).


Because it nearly always comes back to the dad. It's the psychology of them repeating what was done to them. And it confuses and frustrates me that there are so many moms who are unable to stand up to this. I guess there's some psychological stuff wrapped up in that too.

Male doctors are victims themselves. Female doctors are trying to justify what they have already done to their sons or to others' sons.


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## PuppyFluffer (Mar 18, 2002)

MoonJelly,

I think you are exactly right. The burden lies with the medical community to stop this abuse of a baby's right to bodily integrity. There is a financial motivation to continue the procedure and an after market sale of foreskins for bio tech and cosmetic uses.

It's a snake chasing it's tail situation, the doctors say they are performing it because the parents ask and the parents say the medical community is soliciting it - and round and round it goes.

I have little faith in the medical community to stop. I don't think they want to really analyze the medical ethics of it. I think too few legal actions have come to make a real impact with doctors.

My faith in ending this lies in two areas: elimination of Medicaid coverage and education of individual parents.

It is my understanding that the private insurance industry follows the government sector in terms of coverages. As we see more and more stated ceasing medicaid coverage, I think we'll see fewer and fewer private insurance companies paying. If doctors can't get paid for it, they will stop asking to do it, I think

As individual parents get educated, they will refuse the solicitation from the medical community.


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## minkajane (Jun 5, 2005)

I sat in on an infant care class for the hospital up the road from my house. The nurse said that while circ was very painful, the docs use EMLA cream so it's ok. That's ALL they use, EMLA cream! She also mistakenly quoted the circ rate as being at 90% (it's 70% state-wide, I did speak up and correct her and gave the national rate as well) and gave NO functions of the foreskin.


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## mommyminer (Aug 20, 2006)

Then the lidocaine wears off and the baby is peeing and pooing on an open wound. At my hospital, they don't even give the babes Tylenol afterwards.

My question for the other RNs -- Did/do they treat the post surgical pain from circ at your hospital?

I simply don't understand why we don't give babes anything for pain afterwards.


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