What is an "INTACT" baby?

An intact baby is one who has an intact prepuce. This double layer of skin is also commonly known as the foreskin. The prepuce is a natural, healthy, important fold of skin that normally covers and protects the glans of the penis.

WHY IS INTACT HEALTHIER?

Nature has masterfully designed the human body so that every part was made for a reason.Some may think they can improve on nature with surgical intervention in the absence of any disease. Time and time again this approach has been proven wrong. A recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health compared European and American men. European men were found to have a longer lifespan than non-intact American men. While many factors affect longevity, European men are over 95% intact.

In 2012, researchers have discovered that cells in the mucosal lining of the foreskin produce a protein that "eats up" invading HIV -- possibly keeping the spread of the AIDS more contained than it might otherwise be.

Even more important, enhancing the activity of this protein, called Langerin, could be a potent new way to curtail the transmission of the virus that causes AIDS, the Dutch scientists added. Langerin is produced by Langerhans cells, which form a web-like network in skin and mucosa. This network is one of the first structures HIV confronts as it attempts to infect its host.

However, "we observed that Langerin is able to scavenge viruses from the surrounding environment, thereby preventing infection," said lead researcher Teunis Geijtenbeek, an immunologist researcher at Vrije University Medical Center in Amsterdam. The finding, reported in the March 4 online issue of Nature Medicine, "is very interesting and unexpected," said Dr. Jeffrey Laurence, director of the Laboratory for AIDS Virus Research at the Weill Cornell Medical College, in New York City. "It may explain part of the relative inefficiency of HIV in being transmitted."

Read the full report here.

INTACT BABIES ARE HAPPIER

Intact babies have been spared the pain and trauma of needless surgery after being born. Intact babies have better sleep patterns, higher activity level, increased mother-infant interaction and non-disturbed bonding, less irritability, and fewer disruptions in feeding. Intact babies cry less during vaccinations. There is a correlation between circumcision and intensity of pain response during vaccination months later. Infant genital mutilation may result in psychological harm, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Intact babies are spared the stress and pain caused by circumcision. Circumcision raises cortisol and adrenaline, stress hormones, for prolonged periods.

Dr. Bruce Perry's research at Baylor University may shed some light on how babies can be harmed by stress hormones. He found when chronic stress over-stimulates an infant's brain stem (the part of the brain that controls adrenaline release), the child will grow up with an over-active adrenaline system. Such a child will display increased aggression, impulsivity, and violence later in life because the brainstem floods the body with adrenaline and other stress hormones at inappropriate and frequent times.

Dr. Allan Schore of the UCLA School of Medicine has demonstrated that the stress hormone cortisol (which floods the brain during intense crying and other stressful events) actually destroys nerve connections in critical portions of an infant's developing brain. In addition, the portions of the brain responsible for attachment and emotional control can be damaged. Then these sections of the brain will not develop. The result – a violent, impulsive, emotionally unattached child. He concludes that the sensitivity and responsiveness of a parent stimulates and shapes the nerve connections in key sections of the brain responsible for attachment and emotional well-being.

Dr. Brazy at Duke University and Ludington-Hoe and colleagues at Case Western University showed in 2 separate studies how intense crying in infants, such as experienced during circumcision, causes increased blood pressure in the brain, elevates stress hormones, obstructs blood from draining out of the brain, and decreases oxygenation to the brain.

INTACT MEANS NATURAL & WHOLESOME

When you follow the path that nature intended, your baby is in harmony with nature. Intact babies by the very definition are wholesome. Intact babies have lower stress levels, including lower cortisol levels. Cortisol serves to suppress immune function and damage or even destroy neurons in their still-developing brains, researchers at Yale University and Harvard Medical School have found. That can lead to a higher incidence of ADHD, poor academic performance, and anti-social tendencies later in life.

PARENTS PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF THEIR CHILDREN

Babies cannot consent to non-therapeutic cosmetic surgery. Non-therapeutic means the procedure does not cure a specific disease. Having an intact baby means the parents have recognized the child's right to body integrity. In the absence of a specific & urgent medical condition, the infant has the right to be left intact into adulthood.