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"Do you know how many parents walk away and leave their sons to be circ'ed? Don't stay with them? How many nurses tell them to leave so they won't get upset? Screw the baby, we're worried about mom getting upset? By the truth? Bullsh*t. Parents should stay, lend a comforting hand and voice. But they don't. Many of them." --Denise, LPN (11/1999)

"You did 'em in a -- in a locked room which was very dark with a lamp, and it was somewhat sound-proofed and it was away from the nursery so nobody could hear. And it was sort of this weird behavior that you went through where nobody was watching-- and you didn't have a nurse you just did 'em because you were a Resident: You could do anything by yourself." --Chris Fletcher, M.D.

Circumcisions are lots of times done "assembly-line" style. That is, the doctor who is assigned to perform the circumcisions that day, has all the boys born in the last day or two brought to the "procedure room"- a special room behind the nursery. It is sound-proofed and extrememly guarded- as is all of the infant nursery. Along a counter, there are one, two, three, or more Circumstraints. Each one is bolted down, as babies struggle so hard while being circumcised, they could very well fall off the counter while still strapped to "the circ. board". The doctor begins one circumcision and when he finishes, he takes off his surgical gloves, washes his hands, puts a new pair of gloves on, and begins the next circumcision. The first baby (and later the 2nd and 3rd babies, etc) is still in his Circumstraint. This continues until all the babies are "done". Then a nurse comes in to finish up. She applies antibiotic ointment to the raw penis of each baby and adds a gauze dressing if the Gomco Clamp was used. The baby is then rediapered in a "special" diaper and watched for at least 20 minutes to check for possible excessive bleeding- the most common complication from neonatal circumcision. The babies are then returned to their mothers- usually asleep from exhaustion, and also because babies sleep most of the time as newborns. This is not a normal sleep, though. If you are having problems breastfeeding- like I did with my son- Nurses and lactation consultants alike will ask you if your baby is circumcised; they know that the circumcision interrupts the breastfeeding learning process, and some say the mother-baby bonding process, as well.

"I am a lactation consultant, and about 98% of the time we have a hard time getting boys to nurse the day they are circumcised...in fact, they won't even wake up! They are frequently almost comatose! Why do you think this is? I believe that they are traumatized, and are shutting the world out because of it...and avoiding the pain...." --Allissa

Ann Lown, a Registered Nurse, comments: "It's unusual that a parent asks to come and watch a circumcision. I wish they did. I wish we invited them in. I feel like if they're gonna have that done to their kid, they aught to have to at least be there, if nothing [else than] to pick up the baby afterwards and comfort him when its over. "It's normal for parents to go with their child into the Emergency Room if the kid has to have stitches or something like that. It's normal them to go with their baby in the doctor's office and hold the baby while they get their shots or whatever- any painful thing that's done. It's normal for the parent to be there- both to see what happens- to know that it's alright- to give approval to what's going on, and to comfort their child during and afterwards. I think it aught to be the same thing for circumcision. "Circumcision is the ONLY procedure that we do to little children without their parents' presence and support. It's crazy! And that's part of how you know it's crazy: There are all these things about it that are unusual. It doesn't happen the way surgery normally happens. People don't give informed consent the way they normally give for surgery. The parents aren't there the way they normally are when we do things for children. It's just not right. "And when events happen and they're happening in secrecy and people are ignorant about it and its all 'hush-hush'- those things are usually crazy. They're usually happening for some reason other than the stated reason- the stated benefit. It's usually something much deeper and more important than that."