Hello, everyone, welcome back to parently. This is Dr. Boyd. Today I'm talking about circumcision. Now, it seems interesting for a lot of women. Why is an obstetrician talking about the circumcision? Isn't that done by the pediatrician?

The answer is no. Now, I shouldn't say across the board pediatricians don't do circumcisions, but most of the time they're done by the obstetrician. And the answer is very clear. We are surgeons as obstetrician so surgeons have always done the surgery. A circumcision is a surgery. Pediatricians are not surgeons, and that's typically why they don't do the circumcision.

So the question you have to ask yourself is a circumcision necessary? And the answer's no. It's typically a historical surgery that was started by the Jewish nation many many years ago. And typically a Jew had their circumcision done on the eighth They are the rabbi. Now, believe it or not, that still exists for much of the world of Jewish people throughout the world, the rabbi will do their circumcision. So what is a circumcision?

It's the removal of the foreskin. Now, why did they do that? Again, historically, it was done by the Jewish because of a religious reason. As we've gone forward, evangelical Christians and many Christians around the world have it done because of the Judeo Christian history. The circumcision is simply the removal of the foreskin. Oftentimes, it's done in the hospital.

But sometimes healthcare providers prefer to do this in the office, I was one of those. I performed the circumcision in the office, typically around the seventh or eighth day. There is some literature that supports delaying the circumcision to the seventh or eight day, maybe better for baby and you can talk to your healthcare provider or pediatrician about that. routinely though it's done in the hospital. Neither the first or second day of life for the baby. It's done in several different techniques.

So every obstetrician has their preference on the type of equipment they use. For circumcision, I personally use something called the plastic belts, a little plastic device that goes over the head of the penis, and it falls off typically about five to seven days later, around the time that the umbilical cord would be falling off as well. But your health care provider has their own technique. Oftentimes, it's what they feel comfortable with and what they underwent training wise in their obstetrical program. There is some medical reasons haven't done it, it does decrease the risk for penile cancer later in life. But this is a very small risk factor.

Typically, I often encourage moms and dads if the data circumcised that you have the child circumcised, most young men in this country are circumcised and so Most parents typically don't have a problem. However, there's a greater number of people that are not having their sons circumcised. because of concerns over pain. I use the historical data as my gauge. It's been done for at least 3000 years. So I feel very comfortable and telling you that it's safe.

And it's minimal effect as far as stress on the baby from the physical standpoint. Most babies when you take them out of the Paphos, that's the device that we use to hold them. Typically the baby stop stops crying within several seconds, and then the baby simply goes back to the mom and feels very comfortable in the mom's arms. I hope this was helpful today. I encourage you though before you get to the hospital to make the decision on whether you're going to have a circumcision or not. You'll have to sign a consent form because it is a surgical procedure and so knowing this information, making the decision is best for you and your baby before you get there, so care of the circumcision is important and understanding that you're going to be managing a post surgical body part is important to understand.

Now it's not a lot of care, it's very similar to taking care of the baby's umbilical cord. After the foreskin is removed, you will have an edge that is oozing a little bit and typically they're going to put some Vaseline on this edge, and they're going to put some gauze around it. Now, I as I mentioned earlier, use the plastic out so I have minimal to no losing, versus a technique that uses the Gom code device, which typically you have a little bit more. Now this is a healthcare provider preference. So everyone's going to be a little bit different, but care of this is quite minimal, and it typically involves watching for any bleeding. If the foreskin comes back down over the penis that you slide that back up and again, your nurse will talk to you About care of this, and then watching for any risk for infection and all my years of performing circumcisions, and I've performed literally thousands of them.

I have never seen a baby have an infection other circumcision site. It's important that you care for it and clean it, but the risk is extremely small that it will become infected.