Decreased circumcision rate with videotaped counseling.

Despite the lack of medical indication for routine circumcision in the newborn, neonatal circumcision continues to be done on the vast majority of male infants in the United States. A trial of videotaped "informed consent" counseling was undertaken to determine whether such counseling could affect the parental choice about circumcision. We studied the circumcision frequency rate (CFR) after videotape counseling. We compared it to the rates following standard oral counseling. Videotaped counseling, in contrast to the standard physician-parent oral counseling, significantly reduced the incidence of parents' requests for routine neonatal circumcision.