This study examines the effect of different types of female genital mutilation (FGM) on obstetric outcome. Results indicate that deliveries to women who have undergone FGM are significantly more likely to be complicated by caesarean section, postpartum haemorrhage, episiotomy, extended maternal hospital stay, resuscitation of the infant, and inpatient perinatal death, than deliveries to women who have not had FGM. There was no significant association between FGM and the risk of having a low-birthweight infant.

This large prospective study was done at obstetric centres in countries where FGM is common (including Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan) and was designed specifically to examine the relation between different types of FGM and obstetric sequelae. The authors conclude that 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.
Also available via The Lancet at: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673606688053/fulltext (free registration is required)
[By: The WHO Study Group on Female Genital Mutilation and Obstetric Outcome; The Lancet, Volume 367, Number 9525, June 2006.]