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-- Women who have had Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) are significantly more likely to experience difficulties during childbirth and their babies are more likely to die as a result of the traditional yet gruesome practice, according to a new United Nations study released today, which reiterated calls for total abolition of a practice that currently affects 100 million people worldwide.
The study, the first to give clear evidence of the harmful effects for women and babies, cites serious complications during childbirth include the need to have a caesarean section, dangerously heavy bleeding after the birth and prolonged hospitalization, with the degree of complications increasing depending on the extent and severity of the FGM.
The death rate among babies during and immediately after birth is also much higher, in some case up to about 55 per cent. Because the study was carried out in hospitals, experts said death and harm rates were probably significantly higher overall, as many women in the societies where FGM is practiced give birth at home.
"As a result of this study we have, for the first time, evidence that deliveries among women who have been subject to FGM are significantly more likely to be complicated and dangerous," UN World Health Organization (WHO) Assistant Director-General for Family and Community Health Joy Phumaphi said of the practice which is particularly common in Africa. --
