Health Workers' Knowledge of and Experience with Female Genital Cutting in Southwestern, Nigeria

Abstract

Female genital mutilation with its attendant complications has been a harmful traditional practice that is difficult to eliminate despite all efforts by various government and non-governmental agencies in Nigeria. The aim of this study is to assess the experience and the knowledge of the health workers practicing in our environment on Female genital cutting (FGC). Two hundred and fifty were interviewed with self-administered structured questionnaire. Their mean age was 35.2±8.3 years. Type I 82(66.6%) was the commonest FGC seen by the health workers, type II 31(25.2%), type III 9 (7.3%) and type IV constituted 0.8%. Two hundred and two (202) (80.0%) of the respondents admitted to having sufficient knowledge in preventing FGC while 42 (16.8%) did not have. One hundred and twenty one (121) (48.4%) had been asked to perform FGC. It was concluded that female genital cutting is still a major health problem in Nigeria. There is need for all concerned to step up efforts in the elimination of the practice.

Keywords: Experience, Female Genital cutting, Health workers, Knowledge, Nigeria