Circumcision in a foreign country

Today we took Jonas to get circumcised. I write this blog, not to debate circumcision but to share more about the differences in raising kids in a foreign country.

When we found out we were having a boy, we knew that circumcision was going to be an issue because unlike in the States, most men in Europe (and much of the world for that matter) are not circumcised. It is not a standard procedure in the hospital after birth. So I started asking around, starting with my midwife and then the OB at the hospital where I planned on delivering. The OB told me that it was "impossible" in The Netherlands. Well, I knew that wasn't true because we had some other American friends who had their son circumcised a few years back so I challenged the doctor on that. He then started backpedaling, saying that it was possible but he didn't know where and that maybe we would need to talk to a urologist. He also said that they wouldn't do it at birth and we'd probably have to wait several months. Obviously this guy was not supportive of circumcision or of our decision. We decided at that point that the doctor was a dead end and that google would be a better source than this guy. So long story short, I talked to my friends who had it done and then found the place online.

Fast forward to today. Jonas is 6 weeks old, which still seemed a little too old for our comfort but this was the soonest we could get the appointment. This office only does circumcisions and caters mainly to muslims and jewish people. This office was in Amsterdam and we arrived late due to the trains running behind. It was basically like a doctor's office in the bottom of an apartment complex. At this point, I was still unsure if I was going to go in for the actual procedure or wait in the waiting room. I finally decided that I would, because I wanted to be there to comfort Jonas if he needed it. We get called back and the doctor introduces himself and asks if we have ever witnessed a circumcision before. Dan breaks the ice by saying, "only my own", to which we all laugh and the doctor says he hopes he doesn't really remember it. I forgot until later that I actually have witnessed a circumcision before...two actually. A co-worker during a summer internship in college gave birth to twin boys and she was jewish and somehow I was invited to the ceremony. But that is really irrelevant to this story.

The doctor was very kind and explained everything he was going to do, at which points Jonas would cry and also told us that it could be a little traumatizing for parents, especially because they have to strap Jonas down to the table. After he explained the procedure, he then asked if Dan would prefer to hold Jonas down instead of strapping him so we decided to do that since Dan felt comfortable he could keep Jonas still. The procedure started with the doctor administering some local anesthetic via a few shots. This is one of the times throughout the procedure that he warned us Jonas would cry. And he did...poor guy. But as soon as the last shot was done, Jonas was done crying. It was super weird to me how quickly he stopped crying, until later when Dan pointed out that he was probably numb, hence no more pain from the injection. Jonas cried one other time during it, basically when the doctor was pulling the foreskin back, because he had to apply some pressure but I was able to give him a bottle and then he was fine. There was no crying during any of the actual removal and Jonas was just looking around, holding my hand. The whole procedure took about 5 minutes and then we were done! Jonas was calm and happy and cries more whenever he's hungry than he did during this.

The doctor explained to us that it's much better to get it done early on, for the child's sake. It's typically less painful and they have a much faster recovery time. He said that there is also less likely a chance of an infection in children this small. In fact, he said he's never had or heard of a child under 2 months developing an infection from this procedure. He told us to give him some baby tylenol every 4 hours and that within 2-3 days, everything should be healed up and back to normal. He is on call 24/7 for the first 48 hours in case any sort of complications were to arise.

It's now 5:00am the next morning (his procedure was at 11am the day before) and he's had a better day than he's had all week! No crying, sleeping as usual and we haven't given him anymore tylenol in the last 12 hours. Overall, it went great despite it seeming a little weird that it wasn't done in the hospital, right after birth and that we were both present for it and even active participants.

Just another adventure in the life of an American living abroad!