Female Genital Mutilation: Awareness And Attitude Of Nursing And Midwifery Students In Afikpo, Nigeria.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the awareness and attitude of female Nursing and Midwifery students in Afikpo, Southeastern Nigeria towards female genital mutilation (FGM). METHOD; Information was obtained from 269 students of Schools of Nursing and Midwifery, Afikpo on their on their age, marital status, feelings about their circumcision status, problems associated with circumcision, who carried out the procedure and the accruedbenefitsfrom the procedure and attitude towards female genital mutilaton through a semi-structured questionnaire administered by researchers. RESULT; Out of the 269 respondents whose questionnaires were analyzed. The mean age of the respondents was 25.3 with 87.4% belonging to the 15-29 years range. The prevalence rate of FGM in the study group was 54.3%, while 82.9% of the uncircumcised group were happy about their status, 49.3% of the circumcised group expressed happiness over their status. For the circumcised group, 41.7% expressed feeling of unhappiness and only 5.7% of the uncircumcised group expressed unhappiness. The feeling expressed by the 2 groups is statistically significant (X 2 = 41.98; p< 0.005). Most of the respondents were aware of the complications of FGM with 86.2%, 83.35 and 75.85 identifying bleeding, transmission of HIV and painful coitus as complications respectively. Fifty one point 3 percent (51.3%) were of the view that FM curtails promiscuity, 7.5% of the circumcised group reported sexual difficulty as a complication of circumcision. All the respondents were of the legislation banning FGM and would not want their daughters circumcised. CONCLUSION: There is need to further raise the awareness of FGM and its associated harmful effects among women through health education and women socio-economic empowerment.