Having watched the recent interview with Lloyd Schofiled (SF MGM Bill) where CNN;s Kelly stated (In trying to minimize the harms of the procedure) "Some babies sleep through their circumcision........." Since millions of people hear this sort of bullshit......I thought this pro-circ myth needs to be challenged once again.
Firstly why does such a myth even exist? One reason is that it probably developed to give some comfort to the Parents, particularly the mother who has just given birth, because the truth that the baby screamed in agony gasping for breath, would probably cause too much stress to the mother. Another reason is to perpetuate the practice. Possibly another is self-protection by the medical profession?
The truth is that the studies that have examined pain response have found that babies feel severe and intense pain. One study was stopped early once the severity of pain in circumcised babies was recognised. Taddio's studies found circumcised babies demonstrated greater pain behaviours at 6 month immunisations, and another study found even with the use of EMLA topical anaesthetic cream, circumcised babies had elevated cortisol levels (the human stress hormone). So the truth is that babies feel intense & severe pain during circumcision, and that if babies lose consciousness it is not that they are sleeping but that they have a traumatic shock or dissociative unconsciousness.
Lets bust the myth that babies sleep through circumcision.
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