Background: Deinfibulation is a surgical procedure carried out to re-open the vaginal introitus of women living with type III female genital mutilation (FGM).
Objectives: To assess the impact of deinfibulation on gynecologic or obstetric outcomes by comparing women who were deinfibulated with women with type III FGM or women without FGM.
Search strategy: Major databases including CENTRAL, MEDLINE, and Scopus were searched until August 2015.
Selection criteria: We included nonrandomized studies that compared obstetric outcomes of women with deinfibulation, type III FGM (not deinfibulated during labor), and no FGM.
Data collection and analysis: Quality of evidence was determined following the GRADE methodology. Summary measures were calculated using odds ratios at 95% confidence intervals.
Results: We found no randomized controlled trials. We included four case-control studies. The quality of evidence was very low. Compared with women with type III FGM at delivery, deinfibulated women had a significant reduction in the risk of having a cesarean delivery or postpartum hemorrhage. Compared with women without FGM, deinfibulated women had a similar risk of episiotomy, cesarean delivery, vaginal lacerations, postpartum hemorrhage, and blood loss at vaginal delivery. The length of second stage of labor, mean maternal hospital stay, and Apgar scores less than 7 were also comparable.
Conclusions: Low-quality evidence suggests deinfibulation improves birth outcomes for women with type III FGM.
Prospero registration: CRD42015024466.
Keywords: Deinfibulation; Female genital mutilation; Infibulation; Obstetric complications.
© 2017 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. The World Health Organization retains copyright and all other rights in the manuscript of this article as submitted for publication.