Circumcision: The Effect of Information on Parental Decision Making
1 Department of Pediatrics The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center Hershey, Pennsylvania
2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center Hershey, Pennsylvania
Circumcision, a surgical procedure of debatable medical value, is performed on more than 80% of male infants in the United States.1-3 Although there are numerous documented complications of the surgery,4 parents are rarely informed adequately about the operation or its risks.5,6 We speculated that if parents were given more complete and objective information about the procedure, some might elect not to have their sons circumcised. This study was designed to test this hypothesis.
METHODS
During a 3-month period, 104 mothers seen in our prenatal clinic at 30 to 34 weeks of gestation were randomly assigned to receive, or not to receive, written information about circumcision.
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