Female Genital Mutilation

While talking to a midwife who had stayed in Makeni for a year teaching midwife students, it was interesting to hear her say that of all the people she took care of, all of them had undergone female genital mutilation (FGM).  I remember seeing a center for FGM awareness when I first came to Sierra Leone, at Lunsar, but I hadn't realized how prevalent it was.  I didn't think that it was something that ALL women upcountry had, but according to this UK midwife volunteer, that seemed to be the case.  It would make sense, considering how high the maternal mortality rate is and how frequently there's obstruction of labor.  But at the same time, the other UK ob/gyn who came infrequently was super surprised about this claim of how frequent FGM occurred, so I was slightly skeptical as well.  But then today, when I was talking to a Nigerian anesthetist volunteer at the course I'm taking, he also brought up how prevalent FGM is.  I didn't understand clearly whether this happened in all the ladies, but it appeared to have caused obstruction in at least 6 ladies since his two months at Bonthe.  It's interesting that despite how prevalent it is, nothing is mentioned about it.

Appearently it took the midwife volunteer six months to get the confidence of the women she worked with (including midwife students) to get them to talk about FGM.  A women talked about how they remembered being dragged into the bush by her "auntie," getting all fours pinned down, and experiencing excrutiating pain.  Then afterwards, they'd get dressed up and given copious amounts of gifts and foods and had a party.  For most girls, it seemed like they had no idea what was going on, and most of what they recall was the party and gifts.  But apparently the FGM ranged from getting a cut and scarring to complete cutting off to stitching.  Apparently the men didn't care much for this practice, but often it was the grannies and old aunties who continued to get their daughters or granddaughters cut.  According to the midwife, the more educated Krio people seemed to be doing this less, but it was still pretty prevalent in the villages.