L&D Nurse speaks up about circumcision -
Please read under the cut. It's quite powerful...
It's from:
http://faggotsonthethirdfloor.blogspot.com/2007/02/for-tristan.html
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "For Tristan":
"I am a former labor and delivery nurse for a major hospital. When I first started there, I assisted in infant male circumcisions. I hated it from the first but it was a part of my job, and I had children to feed.
"The first circumcision I assisted in is burned in my memory forever. The screams of that poor child will never leave me. The doctor assured me that the baby felt no pain, that he wouldn't remember it, and that he was only mad because he was restrained. In order to make it easier on myself, I chose to beleive that.
"We were trained to never tell the parents the truth. We were always to tell them that the child slept through it, or he barely noticed, or he only cried for a minute. We would keep babies after the circumcision until they calmed down, so their parents wouldn't know how bad it was. A lot of babies did just pass out. The pain must have been completely unbearable. Very few OB's use any kind of anesthesia, believing that it's more trouble than it's worth. Only one doctor that I worked with ever used any anesthesia, and it was a lidocaine injection. Lidocaine injections hurt tremendously anyway, and the children would shriek in pain and terror as they were given the shot. I often wondered if it hurt more than the surgery would have. After that, the babies would still shake and scream through the entire surgery. Then I'd quiet them down and take them back to their parents and tell them that he slept through the whole thing and barely noticed it. Even if we didn't use anesthesia we were always supposed to tell the parents that we used adequate pain relief, which almost always amounted to a pacifier. That is what most OB's consider adequate pain relief and most likely what every child received, even if your OB told you different.
"After 6 months I refused to do the circumcisions anymore, and I was willing to lose my job over it. I didn't lose my job, and I continued for three more years. But every time one of those babies was cut open it would rip at my soul. I could hear them screaming in the other room. The screams that came from the circumcision room were screams of utter agony, like dying animals. I used to pray that the babies would just pass out so their pain would be over. The lucky ones did.
"I left L&D after almost four years, having assisted in nearly 100 circumcisions and been witness to hundreds more. I will be haunted by those children forever. All the babies whose bodies I helped destroy follow me everywhere I go, I can't get away from them. I now work for a pediatrician that does not perform circumcisions, but whenever I see a little boy with a circumcision scar, I can hear those screams again.
"I have 2 daughters, and 2 sons. None of them are circumcised. I am lucky that my sons did not come until after my days on the L&D ward, and they were not subjected to the horrors that I participated in.
"My punishment lies with realizing the horrible things I helped make happen, and living with that guilt every day. Anyone who tells you that the baby didn't notice, or slept through it, is lying. I know for a fact that no matter how well anesthetized a child is, he will be in pain. Even the children who received the blocks still screamed and thrashed in pain and fear the whole time, until they gave up fighting. Every baby boy hurts from this. The poster who says her child was looking around oblivious is either lying or is in such denial that she can't accept what she did to her child. I've been in that room hundreds of times. I know that there was never a single baby that did not notice. There wasn't a single one that didn't shake or scream. Your child was being tortured, too. Maybe you didn't know going into it, maybe you did. But don't discount his pain to make yourself feel better.
"I hate myself for doing nothing to stop it, for helping it happen. I tried to tell myself that at least I could be there and hold his hand or try to comfort him, but there is no comforting a baby during that. I was just another one of his abusers, even if I tried to pretend otherwise. I helped strap down those perfect little boys and mutilate their bodies, and then lied to their mothers about how they didn't feel a thing. Instead of telling their parents the truth, which might have helped other children, I did what I was told.
"Circumcision is wrong. It's as wrong as wrong can be. People who have their children circumcised are abusing them, and the doctors who perform them are doing it solely for money. A circumcision is easy surgery for the doctor and quick money. And those babies pay the price.
I'm so sorry for your nephew. One day I hope you tell him the truth about what his parents did, and prevent him from doing it to his children."
love and peace.
It's from:
http://faggotsonthethirdfloor.blogspot.com/2007/02/for-tristan.html
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "For Tristan":
"I am a former labor and delivery nurse for a major hospital. When I first started there, I assisted in infant male circumcisions. I hated it from the first but it was a part of my job, and I had children to feed.
"The first circumcision I assisted in is burned in my memory forever. The screams of that poor child will never leave me. The doctor assured me that the baby felt no pain, that he wouldn't remember it, and that he was only mad because he was restrained. In order to make it easier on myself, I chose to beleive that.
"We were trained to never tell the parents the truth. We were always to tell them that the child slept through it, or he barely noticed, or he only cried for a minute. We would keep babies after the circumcision until they calmed down, so their parents wouldn't know how bad it was. A lot of babies did just pass out. The pain must have been completely unbearable. Very few OB's use any kind of anesthesia, believing that it's more trouble than it's worth. Only one doctor that I worked with ever used any anesthesia, and it was a lidocaine injection. Lidocaine injections hurt tremendously anyway, and the children would shriek in pain and terror as they were given the shot. I often wondered if it hurt more than the surgery would have. After that, the babies would still shake and scream through the entire surgery. Then I'd quiet them down and take them back to their parents and tell them that he slept through the whole thing and barely noticed it. Even if we didn't use anesthesia we were always supposed to tell the parents that we used adequate pain relief, which almost always amounted to a pacifier. That is what most OB's consider adequate pain relief and most likely what every child received, even if your OB told you different.
"After 6 months I refused to do the circumcisions anymore, and I was willing to lose my job over it. I didn't lose my job, and I continued for three more years. But every time one of those babies was cut open it would rip at my soul. I could hear them screaming in the other room. The screams that came from the circumcision room were screams of utter agony, like dying animals. I used to pray that the babies would just pass out so their pain would be over. The lucky ones did.
"I left L&D after almost four years, having assisted in nearly 100 circumcisions and been witness to hundreds more. I will be haunted by those children forever. All the babies whose bodies I helped destroy follow me everywhere I go, I can't get away from them. I now work for a pediatrician that does not perform circumcisions, but whenever I see a little boy with a circumcision scar, I can hear those screams again.
"I have 2 daughters, and 2 sons. None of them are circumcised. I am lucky that my sons did not come until after my days on the L&D ward, and they were not subjected to the horrors that I participated in.
"My punishment lies with realizing the horrible things I helped make happen, and living with that guilt every day. Anyone who tells you that the baby didn't notice, or slept through it, is lying. I know for a fact that no matter how well anesthetized a child is, he will be in pain. Even the children who received the blocks still screamed and thrashed in pain and fear the whole time, until they gave up fighting. Every baby boy hurts from this. The poster who says her child was looking around oblivious is either lying or is in such denial that she can't accept what she did to her child. I've been in that room hundreds of times. I know that there was never a single baby that did not notice. There wasn't a single one that didn't shake or scream. Your child was being tortured, too. Maybe you didn't know going into it, maybe you did. But don't discount his pain to make yourself feel better.
"I hate myself for doing nothing to stop it, for helping it happen. I tried to tell myself that at least I could be there and hold his hand or try to comfort him, but there is no comforting a baby during that. I was just another one of his abusers, even if I tried to pretend otherwise. I helped strap down those perfect little boys and mutilate their bodies, and then lied to their mothers about how they didn't feel a thing. Instead of telling their parents the truth, which might have helped other children, I did what I was told.
"Circumcision is wrong. It's as wrong as wrong can be. People who have their children circumcised are abusing them, and the doctors who perform them are doing it solely for money. A circumcision is easy surgery for the doctor and quick money. And those babies pay the price.
I'm so sorry for your nephew. One day I hope you tell him the truth about what his parents did, and prevent him from doing it to his children."
love and peace.