What do people think about circumcision? It was a no-brainer for me that I’d want to do it if I had a son, but now that we’re pregnant with a boy, husband says he’s not 100%. I don’t know how to have that conversation. Like why not?

Hmmm outside of religious reasons, I don’t see why you wouldn’t do it to be honest. It’s more hygienic and studies show that it decreases risk of UTIs, STDs and even cancer.

Maybe start by asking your husband, why not? We grew up in a culture where it’s not common, and ultimately decided to do it so that he would match his peers growing up. That was it. Parents and kids where we’re from learn how to clean properly (no different than keeping a girl’s vulva/vagina clean), so the hygiene argument was irrelevant for us.

My boys are. Search the bowl for previous posts about this, I remember a lively thread from a while ago.

Not medically necessary so why put the kid through it was our logic. My husband is circumcised and this was his opinion as well.

We took the stance that if he wanted cosmetic surgery, he could do to choose it when he was old enough to consent 🤷🏼♀️ My husband is circumcised and agreed.

There’s a documentary on Netflix that may help. But generally I’m in the “if it’s not necessary I’m not doing it” camp. Like I wouldn’t genitally mutilate my daughter so why my son. Risk of complications or need for a late in life circumscision are incredibly low so I don’t buy the hygiene arguments. My husband is not circumcised so we’re comfortable that he’ll be able to teach proper cleaning etc.

The foreskin has function! My husband isn’t circumcised either; I am pretty sure we’d both miss it if it were gone (him especially). He has never had an issue with cleaning, hygiene, or anything else. His cousin decided to get circumcised as an adult; not exactly a walk in the park but is an option if the kid grows up to dislike having foreskin. I would absolutely NOT remove that choice.

I did not - like others have stated, it’s really cosmetic more than anything else. As long as you have good hygiene, the risks are the same. I have friends with several boys etc and don’t know anyone who’s had any issues with an uncircumcised boy. My husband is circumcised and originally wanted it, admittedly for his selfish reason of wanting him to look like him. That wasn’t a good enough reason for me to cut my boys privates nor do I care about the judgment or appearance of others. I also wouldn’t want to cut off his nerves along with the skin - if you look up the history of this some of it is racist and some of it was to punish men so they aren’t as sensitive. And yes, it’s painful. My husband was on board after encouraging research and seeing how strongly I felt about this unnecessary procedure. Here’s a good article below. I also encourage you to watch a video of circumcision to understand what it entails if that’s where you are leaning. https://evidencebasedbirth.com/evidence-and-ethics-on-circumcision/

I’m from a culture where no one circumcises, but my husband is and we initially planned to do it for my son. But once he was born, one look at him and we changed our minds (he was such a little baby)! Told the nurse we were backing out and she said it happened all the time.

Jewish. Husband is not. Was never question for me that our son would be circumcised. My husband is not circumcised. It was a huge argument for months before he was born. My husband is super clean (takes more than one shower a day) and said it was super easy to clean the foreskin and that we would be maiming our son. I took a firm stance and said not only was it important to me for religious reasons, but I wanted our son not to be made fun of in the locker room as it is super common for American boys to be circumcised these days. He caved. I gave in to our son having his last name. Compromise. Lol.

It took about 5 minutes of me watching the docu “the elephant in the hospital” to decide against it. My husband and i were both on the fence. He is uncircumcised, but we saw the value in both arguments. He never had any issues, though. One thing no one ever talks about is post op care lasts for months on babies. Like having to pull the skin back over and over again. Sounded like another thing to stress about for my friends that were moms of boys. We ended up having a girl so it didn’t matter, but if I had to choose in the future, would probably just let him be as nature designed!