Cailin suggested I copy part of the email I sent her to here, as she felt others might be interested.

The pediatrician put a little ring under the foreskin that gently lifted the skin off after two days, it came away cleanly and there was very little blood. I'm sure if I asked I would have been able to stay, but I'd left him in the nursery for a blood check for jaundice and then answered a phone call, and by the time I walked back in it was already done! It only takes a few minutes - my information sheet from the pediatrician said an average of seven minutes, if it takes more than ten, the doctor is incompetent.

Max experienced very little discomfort, for which I was very relieved as I'm sure you can imagine! My husband was totally freaked at the thought of changing his nappy for the first few days afterwards, I understood this so changed his nappy for the first three days, but there really wasn't anything 'icky' about it. By the time I needed DH to do a change, it was totally healed with no scarring - just a little red around the tip, as the new skin adjusted to being on the outer. No scabbing, no mess.
The wound care is very basic and easy, just pop a bit of gauze lined with vaseline on top of the penis to stop it rubbing on the nappy for a week, and let it heal by itself!

Further to that, Fishchick, they use a local anaesthetic, and as far as what age is best, I guess that's debatable - it's traditional for Jewish boys to be done at eight days old, the reasons are anyone's guess! Personally I'm wondering if it might not be because at that young age, the baby's system is still awash with a strong healing influence related to the birth? An operation which would cause major discomfort for an adult really seemed to be of very little consequence to Max, so I'm figuring that the hormones which help babies recover quickly from a birth are still in force and cause a quick healing - mind you, that's just my personal theory.

Kerrie