Correlations between the proportion of type III female genital mutilations in the series and adverse obstetric outcomes: a short meta-analysis

Background: Authors have reported that evidence on health harms of female genital mutilation is poor. Aim: Meta-analyzing prospective studies on adverse obstetric outcomes according to the severity of female genital mutilation. Method: Prospective studies were already acknowledged in previous meta-analyses and used for calculations. The proportions of type III female genital mutilation were extracted by full-texts, along with the proportions of adverse obstetric outcomes. Assuming random models, the proportions were encoded for meta-analysis and weighted for the inverse of the variance. Nonparametric correlations among weighted proportions of type III female genital mutilation and weighted proportions of obstetric outcomes were built. Analyzable obstetric outcome were: cesarean section, instrumental delivery, episiotomy, post-partum hemorrhage, low Apgar score – need of resuscitation. Results: Meta-analyzable series are few and heterogeneous. There is a trend of direct correlation among the proportion of type III female genital mutilations in the series and the proportion of cesarean section, instrumental deliveries, post-partum hemorrhage and low Apgar scores at birth or need of neonatal resuscitation. The significance was reached for the post-partum hemorrhage and for the fetal adverse outcome. Conclusion: It should be retained that type III female genital mutilation is likely to be a serious concern for birth.