Female Genital Mutilation: The Role of Health Professionals in Prevention, Assessment and Management

Health professionals working in community settings are increasingly using mobile technologies to access information and support clients. A Mary Seacole Leadership Award enabled the production of an app, Let's talk FGM, to assist health professionals to make sensitive inquiry about female genital mutilation (FGM). This article outlines the rationale for the project and the steps needed for successful app development. It illustrates how clinical practitioners can respond to service users' needs and, in collaboration with colleagues and community groups, create responsive, usable tools to harness digital technology. It also showcases the role of partnership working and networking to develop the skills needed to lead in digital health.

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Digital health innovation to support sensitive enquiry about female genital mutilation

British Journal of Midwifery ◽

10.12968/bjom.2021.29.5.252 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 29 (5) ◽

pp. 252-259

Author(s):

Joanne McEwan ◽

Helen Bedford

Keyword(s):

Health Professionals ◽

Female Genital Mutilation ◽

Digital Health ◽

Mobile Technologies ◽

Genital Mutilation ◽

App Development ◽

Mary Seacole ◽

Web App ◽

Female Genital

Health professionals working in community settings are increasingly using mobile technologies to access information and support clients. A Mary Seacole Leadership Award enabled the production of an app, ‘Let's talk FGM’ (later becoming the web app letstalkfgm.nhs.uk ), to assist health professionals to make sensitive inquiry about female genital mutilation (FGM). This article outlines the rationale for the project and the steps needed for successful app development. It illustrates how clinical practitioners can respond to service users' needs, and in collaboration with colleagues and community groups, create responsive, usable tools which harness digital technology. It also showcases the role of partnership working and networking to develop the skills needed to lead within digital health.

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Female genital mutilation and the role of health-care practitioners

Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health ◽

10.1111/jpc.13575 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 53 (6) ◽

pp. 523-524 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David Isaacs ◽

Bernadette Tobin

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Female Genital Mutilation ◽

Genital Mutilation ◽

Health Care Practitioners ◽

Female Genital

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The timing of female genital mutilation and the role of contralateral palpal insertions in the spider Cyclosa argenteoalba

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.170860 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (11) ◽

pp. 170860 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kensuke Nakata

Keyword(s):

Female Genital Mutilation ◽

Basal Part ◽

Mating Frequency ◽

Genital Mutilation ◽

The One ◽

Female Genital

Some male spiders exhibit female genital mutilation behaviour (FGM) by removing the female genital appendage (scape) to control the mating frequency of females. Female spiders have two, i.e. right and left, genital openings connected with separate spermathecae into which males transfer sperm successively using one pedipalp (secondary genitalia) at a time. Thus, males must complete at least two palpal insertions to fill both spermathecae, before FGM. The present study examined whether (i) scape removal is only associated with the second palpal insertion (one-action hypothesis) or (ii) two contralateral palpal insertions facilitate FGM, with each insertion cutting the basal part of the scape halfway (two-actions hypothesis). Experiments in which females were replaced after a male had made the first insertion did not support the one-action hypothesis, because scapes remained intact after the newly introduced virgin females received their first palpal insertion, which was the second insertion by the males. In comparison, mating experiments using two half-eunuchs (i.e. one of the palps of each male had been manually removed, forcing them to fill female spermatheca on one side only) supported the two-actions hypothesis. FGM was more frequent in females that received two contralateral palpal insertions than in females that received ipsilateral insertions.

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Review of Web-Based Toolkits for Health Care Practitioners Working With Women and Girls Affected by or at Risk of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

Journal of Primary Care & Community Health ◽

10.1177/2150132720935296 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

pp. 215013272093529

Author(s):

Hina Shaikh ◽

Karen A. McDonnell

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

Health Professionals ◽

Female Genital Mutilation ◽

Service Providers ◽

Health Sector ◽

Skills Development ◽

Genital Mutilation ◽

Rich Diversity ◽

Women And Girls ◽

Female Genital

Increased migration has given rise to more advocacy efforts against female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C), legislation that criminalizes the practice, and guidance to the health sector for managing care of affected groups. More women and girls who have been cut or who are at risk of FGM/C are migrating from regions where it is common to countries where it is not and interacting with health professionals and other community practitioners in these host countries. Despite numerous studies on the negative health impacts of FGM/C, little is known about toolkits on FGM/C that providers can use in their prevention and response efforts. We sought to explore the nature of Internet-based products referenced as toolkits and materials characteristic of toolkits aimed at different service providers who may interact with women and girls affected by FGM/C. Through an online search, we identified 45 toolkits and collected data about each one. We found that the toolkits targeted different audiences and offered a diverse set of information and resources. The majority of toolkits were aimed at health professionals and provided factual and epidemiological-focused content, yet many did not include research evidence, skills development application, or approaches for implementing the toolkit in practice. This review is the first completed in the area of FGM/C to show a rich diversity of online materials. Future toolkits can be improved with the provision of evidence-based information and practical skills development for use by health professionals in implementing best practices in working with women and girls affected by FGM/C.

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Perversion and Perpetration in Female Genital Mutilation Law: The Unmaking of Women as Bearers of Law

Social & Legal Studies ◽

10.1177/0964663919856681 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 273-293 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Maree Pardy ◽

Juliet Rogers ◽

Nan Seuffert

Keyword(s):

Female Genital Mutilation ◽

New South ◽

Female Genital Cutting ◽

Demonic Possession ◽

Genital Mutilation ◽

South Wales ◽

Genital Cutting ◽

English Speaking ◽

Female Genital

Female genital cutting (FGC) or, more controversially, female genital mutilation, has motivated the implementation of legislation in many English-speaking countries, the product of emotive images and arguments that obscure the realities of the practices of FGC and the complexity of the role of the practitioner. In Australia, state and territory legislation was followed, in 2015, with a conviction in New South Wales highlighting the problem with laws that speak to fantasies of ‘mutilation’. This article analyses the positioning of Islamic women as victims of their culture, represented as performing their roles as vehicles for demonic possession, unable to authorize agency or law. Through a perverse framing of ‘mutilation’, and in the case through the interpretation of the term ‘mutilation’, practices of FGC as law performed by women are obscured, avoiding the challenge of a real multiculturalism that recognises lawful practices of migrant cultures in democratic countries.

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