Many parents struggle with the issue of whether to have their son circumcised in the hospital or to have a bris at home. They are concerned that the home environment is somehow not as “safe” or “sterile” as a hospital would be. They feel that having a circumcision is a medical procedure which is inappropriate to perform in the home setting.
By Regensburg Pentateuch, Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Cod. 180/52, fol. 81b. Copy scanned from BIU today, Vol. 4 Fall/Winter 2007. (Bar-Ilan University magazine), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3333654
Fortunately, these concerns are groundless. There is nothing especially sterile about the rooms in hospitals in which circumcisions are performed. If anything, since multiple babies pass through those rooms, there is more of a chance of a baby being exposed to infectious bacteria there than in his own home environment. The instruments that are used for a home circumcision are sterilized the same way as are those used in the hospital. And the rate of infection from home circumcision is vanishingly small.
It used to be possible to have the brit milah procedure done in the hospital–but that was decades ago when mothers stayed in the hospital for extended periods of time after having their babies. Now with mothers being discharged within 24 to 48 hours of having a vaginal delivery or 3 to 4 days after having a cesarean section, very few babies are still in the hospital on the eighth day. Those that are, are often in the intensive care nursery, too ill to be circumcised.
There are several advantages to having a bris at home. The baby gets to stay with the mother almost continuously during the entire process as opposed to being taken away for ½-1 hour when circumcised in the hospital. The mother is thus able to hold and comfort her baby just before and just after the actual circumcision part of the brit milah ceremony (which only lasts 3-5 minutes). Moreover, a traditional home bris is a wonderful, warm ceremony that introduces the new baby to his family’s community of relatives and friends. It is a joyous and awe-inspiring celebration that feels much more comfortable in the family’s home then in the impersonal institutional environment of the hospital.