FLORIDA BABY SWITCH ANOTHER REASON NOT TO CIRCUMCISE

         	     "KEEP NEWBORN CLOSE TO YOU," HEALTH GROUP ADVISES

               		      --How Safe are Your Area Hospitals?--  





		         SAN ANSELMO, CA. -- The switch of two babies at a

		   Florida Maternity hospital gives "tragic new meaning" to

		   the American Academy of Pediatrics' position that

		   circumcision has "inherent disadvantages and risks," a

		   non-profit California health group said this week.



		         "When a mother for any reason lets a newborn baby

		   out of her eyesight at a maternity hospital, there is

 		   always a risk of mixup or abduction," said Marilyn Fayre

                   Milos, R.N., executive director of NOCIRC.  "The painful,

		   unnecessary practice of circumcision is clearly not

                   worth that risk." 



			 Milos cited the Florida mixup of two girls and the

 		   abduction of an infant boy at a Maryland hospital as the

		   "tip of an iceberg which may be bigger than we think."



		         "The Maryland mother was not concerned by her

		   newborn's absence from her room because she had been

		   told he would be taken away for a circumcision," Milos

                   said.  "Instead he was kidnapped."



		         "In a hospital, don't let your babies out of your

 		   sight," Nurse Milos warned expectant parents, "unless

                   some extreme medical need requires it.  There is no

		   health reason to circumcise, but if you really must, as

		   painful as it will be for your and your son, insist on

                   your right to be there."



			This year the American Academy of Pediatrics

 		   reaffirmed that newborn circumcision has "inherent

		   disadvantages and risks" and the practice is in decline

                   among the educated, with 40% of U.S. male babies now

                   left intact (non-circumcised). Circumcision is no longer

		   practiced outside the U.S., except religously.



			"Besides the pain and risk of circumcision," Milos

		   said, "removing an infant from his mother's room 

		   increases the chance of mixup and abduction."



			Milos said that there is growing belief among

 		   health professionals that babies should be kept close to

		   their mothers in the early days -- as opposed to

		   "wharehousing" in hospital nurseries -- and that the

 		   infliction of pain on newborns through harsh lights,

		   noise, and genital surgery was "cruel and unnecessary."





	                                               11/25/89