Jackie May: It's the season of winter schools and circumcision. The death again of young men has got the nation talking about circumcision. In my own experience, I had a surprising reaction to the possibility of circumcising my son.

My family is a mixed bag of circumcised and uncircumcised penises. One of my brothers is circumcised and the other one isn't. We don't have a cultural premise to follow on this one. My Jewish husband on the other hand comes from a tradition of brit milah.

So when I was expecting a son a few years ago, I was happy to consider operating the boy I would have.

My husband and I spoke about sons needing to look like their dads. But we rejected that quite quickly. Isn't it more important that sons look like their friends at school than that they look like their dads? I can't picture teenage boys hanging about talking about their foreskins with their fathers. It's more likely that they do this while hanging around with their friends.

After rejecting this argument, we discussed whether he should be circumcised in case he chose to become Jewish one day. That didn't hold either. In some Jewish movements you don't need to be circumcised to adopt Jewish identity. So we decided to leave that up to him when and if he wants to become Jewish.

We discussed the research on the relationship between circumcision and HIV/Aids . It's compelling. As much as we think our children will one day practice safe sex, this is wishful thinking. Young people take risks.

I asked my brothers what they thought. They both advised against it. I consulted doctors, nurses and midwives. Most said we should go ahead. Why not? It's healthier. One paediatric surgeon said that unless it is medically necessary, leave the foreskin well alone. Confused? I was.

As my due date came, my husband and I were still undecided. He was more inclined to do it, I was really not sure. We would wait to make the decision after the birth.

The baby arrived. A big strapping lad. Beautiful and healthy. My love hormones went into aggressive overdrive. There was not a chance anybody was going near him with a knife to remove a part of his perfect little body.

I may have made a mistake, but that he'll have to correct in his own time.