Guilt over circumcision

Everything will be okay. You are not a bad mother. And the fact that you care is important.

We circumcised my son for three reasons and to be honest, I don't regret the decision. My son is a happy, healthy toddler. My reasons were

  1. We did have doctors suggest it as a medically preventative procedure. Parents do ultimately have to make difficult decisions sometimes. We do have revoke bodily autonomy, for medical procedures. And for me, if a doctor is recommending it, to deny that recommendation was equal to being an Anti-vaxxer. I don't have a medical degree, a medical license, and reading reddit isn't what should be making my decision for me. A literal doctor was telling me to do something that could prevent future complications and I trusted them.
  2. Almost every single man I know is circumcised. My husband, my brother, my dad they all say they are happy they were circumcised or certainly don't care, at all. I didn't even really understand that circumcision was up for debate until coming to this sub AFTER we had already done it. I honestly thought everyone did it or at least every American male. The only exception is one person. I know one male in my whole life who wasn't circumcised, which leads into point
  3. The only man I ever met not circumcised, had a horribly difficult time with infection. His foreskin was a problem and while I don't know that his mother regretted the decision. Getting circumcised as an adult is INCREDBILY PAINFUL. I wanted to prevent my son from having that pain. Yes, I'm sure it was painful as a baby, but not like it would be if he needed it as an adult.

I don't know if I would make the same decision again and I will never know, as we are done having children. But at that time, I made as best an informed decision as I could and I need to tell myself that whenever I have doubts. Two years out and I don't think about it really at all anymore. Occasionally, I feel a pang of guilt when I see it brought up on this sub. But, you will move on from this moment. You are not a bad mother. You're doing your best.

/r/beyondthebump Thread