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      Midwives' Experiences in Providing Care and Counselling to Women with Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Related Problems

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          Abstract

          Aim. The aim of this study was to elucidate midwives experiences in providing care and counselling to women with FGM related problems. Setting. The study was conducted at a maternity clinic in Hargeisa, Somaliland. Method. A qualitative, inductive study were performed with eight midwives living in Somaliland. The interviews had semi-structured questions. Content analysis was used for the analysis. Findings. The main findings of the present study were how midwives are challenged by culture and religion when providing FGM counselling. The most prominent challenge is the perception that FGM is an important part of the culture and from this point of view the midwives work is apprehended as interfering and subverting the Somali culture. Having personal experience of FGM emerged as a benefit when counselling women. Conclusion. There is a contradiction between the professional actions of performing FGM despite a personal belief against FGM. Midwives as a professional group could be important agents of change and further research is needed about the midwives role in this process.

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          Most cited references33

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          Female genital mutilation and obstetric outcome: WHO collaborative prospective study in six African countries.

          Reliable evidence about the effect of female genital mutilation (FGM) on obstetric outcome is scarce. This study examines the effect of different types of FGM on obstetric outcome. 28 393 women attending for singleton delivery between November, 2001, and March, 2003, at 28 obstetric centres in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan were examined before delivery to ascertain whether or not they had undergone FGM, and were classified according to the WHO system: FGM I, removal of the prepuce or clitoris, or both; FGM II, removal of clitoris and labia minora; and FGM III, removal of part or all of the external genitalia with stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening. Prospective information on demographic, health, and reproductive factors was gathered. Participants and their infants were followed up until maternal discharge from hospital. Compared with women without FGM, the adjusted relative risks of certain obstetric complications were, in women with FGM I, II, and III, respectively: caesarean section 1.03 (95% CI 0.88-1.21), 1.29 (1.09-1.52), 1.31 (1.01-1.70); postpartum haemorrhage 1.03 (0.87-1.21), 1.21 (1.01-1.43), 1.69 (1.34-2.12); extended maternal hospital stay 1.15 (0.97-1.35), 1.51 (1.29-1.76), 1.98 (1.54-2.54); infant resuscitation 1.11 (0.95-1.28), 1.28 (1.10-1.49), 1.66 (1.31-2.10), stillbirth or early neonatal death 1.15 (0.94-1.41), 1.32 (1.08-1.62), 1.55 (1.12-2.16), and low birthweight 0.94 (0.82-1.07), 1.03 (0.89-1.18), 0.91 (0.74-1.11). Parity did not significantly affect these relative risks. FGM is estimated to lead to an extra one to two perinatal deaths per 100 deliveries. Women with FGM are significantly more likely than those without FGM to have adverse obstetric outcomes. Risks seem to be greater with more extensive FGM.
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            Using qualitative research.

            A renewed urgency has emerged in the qualitative health research community concerning the utility of qualitative research. This urgency is the result of several converging trends in health care research, including the elevation of practical over basic knowledge, proliferation of qualitative health research studies, and the rise of evidence-based practice as a paradigm and methodology for health care. Diverse conceptualizations of use and users exist, and these have different implications for understanding, demonstrating, and enhancing the utility of qualitative research findings. Issues affecting the utilization of these findings include the varied ways in which they are conceived, presented, synthesized, signified, and translated, and the complex repertoire of skills required to activate the knowledge transformation cycle in qualitative health research fully.
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              Dynamics of change in the practice of female genital cutting in Senegambia: testing predictions of social convention theory.

              Recent reviews of intervention efforts aimed at ending female genital cutting (FGC) have concluded that progress to date has been slow, and call for more efficient programs informed by theories on behavior change. Social convention theory, first proposed by Mackie (1996), posits that in the context of extreme resource inequality, FGC emerged as a means of securing a better marriage by signaling fidelity, and subsequently spread to become a prerequisite for marriage for all women. Change is predicted to result from coordinated abandonment in intermarrying groups so as to preserve a marriage market for uncircumcised girls. While this theory fits well with many general observations of FGC, there have been few attempts to systematically test the theory. We use data from a three year mixed-method study of behavior change that began in 2004 in Senegal and The Gambia to explicitly test predictions generated by social convention theory. Analyses of 300 in-depth interviews, 28 focus group discussions, and survey data from 1220 women show that FGC is most often only indirectly related to marriageability via concerns over preserving virginity. Instead we find strong evidence for an alternative convention, namely a peer convention. We propose that being circumcised serves as a signal to other circumcised women that a girl or woman has been trained to respect the authority of her circumcised elders and is worthy of inclusion in their social network. In this manner, FGC facilitates the accumulation of social capital by younger women and of power and prestige by elder women. Based on this new evidence and reinterpretation of social convention theory, we suggest that interventions aimed at eliminating FGC should target women's social networks, which are intergenerational, and include both men and women. Our findings support Mackie's assertion that expectations regarding FGC are interdependent; change must therefore be coordinated among interconnected members of social networks. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Obstet Gynecol Int
                Obstet Gynecol Int
                OGI
                Obstetrics and Gynecology International
                Hindawi Publishing Corporation
                1687-9589
                1687-9597
                2013
                18 September 2013
                : 2013
                : 785148
                Affiliations
                1Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
                2Development Studies, Hargeisa, Somaliland, Somalia
                3Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
                Author notes

                Academic Editor: Johanne Sundby

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6301-1071
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6659-1064
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7193-1150
                Article
                10.1155/2013/785148
                3791569
                24163698
                1f10b6ab-9186-4fe1-b413-355a43ca647c
                Copyright © 2013 Elisabeth Isman et al.

                This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 9 April 2013
                : 18 June 2013
                Categories
                Research Article

                Obstetrics & Gynecology
                Obstetrics & Gynecology

                Comments

                This study provides an interesting insight into the challenges midwifes are faced with regarding care and counseling of women who did undergo FGM. The finding that the strongest challenges for the midwives are religion and culture as well as the women are the driving forces behind the perpetuation of FGM corresponds to the findings of other research. The finding of this study, that personal experience and health education as well as information regarding religion had the strongest influence on the midwives’ change of opinion, indicates that strengthening the competence of midwives might have a crucial influence on change and elimination of the practice of FGM.

                2015-06-11 14:58 UTC
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