Most people, regardless of where they live, have at least heard of Yale, that elite school that has educated some of the greatest minds around the world and has also been one of the leaders in hospital care. Today I will not talk about the education that one can receive there for an extravagant sum of money, but rather one of the experiences that I had with my wife after giving birth at Yale New Haven Hospital. For the most part, the birthing experience and 2 day stay afterwards was fantastic. The nurses followed our written birth plan to the letter and didn't question us about what we did or didn't want done. That being said, however, there was one part, indirectly tied to the birth plan that was mildly troubling seeing as they are supposed to be this "great" hospital on the forefront of technology and patient care. That was my son's circumcision. I know, most men cringe at the thought of a circumcision, but for an infant, it is a mostly pain free procedure due to the fact that not all the nerves are fully developed in every part of a newborns body. As part of the birth plan, we indicated that we did not want our son to receive the Vitamin K shot. (Vitamin K is one of the main factors in helping blood to clot) We didn't want the Vitamin K shot because of all the additives that can be found in it, the trauma of an injection at such a young age, and the extremely high amount of Vitamin K that the shot provides. On the birth plan, we also indicated that we would administer an oral dose of natural Vitamin K, much lower in dosage, but ample enough to provide the necessary clotting factors for a routine procedure like a circumcision. Due to our decision, the hospital administration would not allow the circumcision to be done while we were in the hospital (when it is normally done 1 or 2 days after birth). The nurses were a little freaked out, not understanding at all that Vitamin K is Vitamin K regardless of how the newborn gets it. The OB's, the ones who perform the procedure, didn't understand the hospital's decision at all. It turns out that because Yale didn't know enough about it, they were afraid of a lawsuit and didn't want the procedure done in their hospital. I thought Yale was supposed to be at the forefront of technology. Obviously, they neglected to look at the simple difference between a Vitamin K shot and an oral dose of the same Vitamin.
So what is the big deal about Vitamin K? Well, Vitamin K shots were given after it was found that some infants had issues with clotting after birth, one of them being HDN (Hemorrhagic Disease of Newborns) where their brains would start bleeding uncontrollably and most would die if not caught in time. What physicians and hospitals overlooked however was that most of the cases of HDN were due to traumatic births requiring forceps or vacuum extraction. To combat HDN, they decided that every newborn should receive the Vitamin K shot, which at its current dosage is thousands of times higher than the newborn actually needs. So lets take a look briefly at human physiology and newborns. There is a reason, still unknown, why newborns are born with very low levels of Vitamin K. During pregnancy, Vitamin K is one of the few vitamins and minerals that do not cross the placenta and are not absorbed by the newborns. No one knows why this is, but there must be a reason for it. Also, once the baby is born, it takes up to 8 days for the baby's body to start producing Vitamin K on its own, a result of natural bacteria being introduced into its digestive system. Perhaps that is why Jewish families for thousands of years through the present have waited a week before circumcising their babies. Due to all of this information that I learned through research before my son was born, we opted for the natural, lower dosage, oral supplement of Vitamin K, just to be on the safe side. It turned out to be pointless because Yale failed to due their research and fulfill their duty.
So why even get our son circumcised? It is not a cultural or religious reason for us, but more of a sanitary and health reason. Being a person who must know about things before they happen, I also did research on circumcisions and why they are done. The biggest reason is because of the reduced risk of infection. Being circumcised, it is much easier to clean the penis than if a male was uncircumcised. There is a higher risk of infection of any type of disease with uncircumcised males. And perhaps the biggest motivating factor behind having our son circumcised was the fact that all cases of penile cancer were in uncircumcised males. I personally, would rather not take the chance of our son developing cancer of the penis later in life due to our decision when he was young. So instead of having the circumcision easily done at Yale 2 days after birth, we had to see a urologist (our son was the youngest patient in the office when we went for the consult) and have the procedure done 2 weeks after birth instead. So, yes, the procedure was done a few days ago and guess what, he had no problems with clotting, barely stirred during the procedure, and is experiencing only mild discomfort as it heals. So the whole issue we had was simply over Yale being afraid of a lawsuit. I have talked about lawsuits before and how they have become such a factor of fear in the United States that it essentially paralyzes certain institutions and individuals from doing certain things. Well I got to experience that first hand, and it sucks.
So why am I writing about my son getting a little snip snip procedure done? Frankly, because I want to share the information that I learned about and hopefully educate others out there about the procedure, Vitamin K, and what you can expect. Everything I have done for my son has been out of love, nothing more, nothing less. I felt it was my obligation to provide him informed decisions on my part as he can not make any yet. People can criticize me for my decisions, but our son is thriving, growing, and developing at quite a rapid pace. He had his two week check up with the pediatrician yesterday and she was amazed at how strong he already is. At two weeks he is already lifting his head up on his own from laying on his belly and at the doctor's office, he actually shimmied away from her while on the table. He is not quite crawling yet, but he can wiggle away from you if he wants. Also, he now weighs 9 pounds, one pound more than he weighed at birth, and is already exhibiting his Polish stubbornness (which he probably gets from me). All in all, he is wonderful, cute, inquisitive, and I am sure he will be a little terror (a wonderful one) when he grows up. All I can urge future parents out there is to do your research. Do not go into this life changing event without any knowledge of what can happen to your child. I am glad I did the research and will continue to research everything I can as my son grows up.
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