Call the Midwife - FGM

[Littlepiglittlepig3letmeIN]

At first I thought the programe makers were doing a good job at highlighting how wrong this practice is, and yet at the last moment, they normalized it by making out it's tradition.
I felt they missed a good opportunity to get through to the right people.

The programme makers can try and dress it up however they want - trying to make out it's tradition and it's the women that facilitate it.
Women may carry it out, but
It's men who are behind it.

It's heartbreaking to think that even in this day and age, little girls are still being butchered and disfigured by these barbaric animals.

No no women are as bad as men on this. Don't be under any illusions that they're innocent in this, they're bloody proud of it

Play, that's shocking.

I still want to know,
If a child is taken out of the country to be cut, then comes back,
do Social Services remove the child from the family?
( I would like to think they remove the child before the butchery takes place)

What's the stance on this? Do they get away with it because it's tradition?
I bloody hope not.

I think they do. They certainly will be wanting to look at the child's welfare.

Any midwives on here do you flag up expectant mums with fgm issues to social services?

No, they don't. And it happens in this country too.

Having worked with young women in communities who still practise FGM, I've had some training to try and safeguard these girls and spot the signs before they are taken away, usually over the summer holiday.

The thing that I find most difficult to accept is that the mutilation is commonly inflicted by older women on the young girls, and that it is often women who are keeping the practice alive. I cannot fathom this.

As teachers we are supposed to listen out for girls mentioning leaving the country to go to "special girl parties". Where I work they have reported and stopped at least a couple of families taking girls out of the country. I don't know what happened after but the girls will still be with their families

I think it was hugely important that they showed it as being tradition that is done by women. No one who actually does this is going to change their mind but it does show to some people outside these communities that the women having this done and doing it see it as normal and traditional.
To them they are no abusing their children anymore that putting on braces to straighten teeth.
The mothers will defend it, will try to hide it, will support it. If people who are in contact with children want to stop this then they need to understand this. Many women feel that they have no option but to do this to their daughters. That they will be unclean, impure and not get a husband without it.

Having worked on labour ward for 10 years and seen a fair few myself I found the writers addressed the issue with sensitivity and tact.

A poster has asked:
''Do midwives flag the mother to Social Services?''

I would hope so. After all, if the mother has been done, there is a very strong chance the baby will eventually be sent away to be cut as well.
Hopefully they are flagged up.

Yippekyak,
Do the children get removed from their mothers?

I find it difficult to get my head around that children are removed from families for far less, but it's OK to cut your daughter if it comes under 'tradition'?

What's the stance on this? Do they get away with it because it's tradition?

No they don't but you need to understand that to some women and cultures it is tradition. In some countries up to 90% of women have undergone FGM. It is their normal.

I'm not defending it for one moment, it is tradition in some countries and women from those cultures will defend it because if that, just like the mother in CTM did.

I find it difficult to get my head around that children are removed from families for far less, but it's OK to cut your daughter if it comes under 'tradition'?

No one in THIS COUNTRY is saying that it's OK because it is tradition. It is illegal and wrong. However in OTHER COUNTRIES and cultures it is completely normal and what all the women do.

It may be tradition in some countries.
It's against the law in this country.

Or is it?

I wonder if there are any women on MN (reading this) who have had it done?

I thought it was very well done- especially the women-led bit. I had realised the extent of the procedure before they aired the programme. Sewn up?! That's so horrific and so much worse than the (still terrible) view I previously had about fgm was.

I was also very shocked that they said that the practice had routinely be used in the U.K for "medical reasons" in the not to distant past. How is this true?? It's shocking.

It is against the law in this country, yes.

Technically an episiotomy is fgm as is critical piercings and labioplasty.

I'm not defending fgm I'm just explaining we have our own variants of it in our culture.

There is now a legal duty for GP'S and health professionals and teachers to report fgm concerns. I've dealt with a few concerns raised where there was suspicion the girl was being taken abroad for a 'family occasion'. There are now fgm protection orders which can be applied for from a family court, a breach can lead to 5 yrs imprisonment . It's now an offence for uk nationals or a permanent resident to perform it or take a girl out UK for it.
Midwives will report to cyps expectant mothers who have had it done.

Bloody autocorrect. Clitoral piercings!

Yes many things have been done to women to calm our hysteria and moods including genital mutilation, rape and labotomies

It is against the law in this country isn't it? There might not have been many (any?) prosecutions but it's still against the law.

There are different levels of FGM.
Some where the woman is sewn up completely, some with less cutting and sewing.

There is now a legal duty for GP'S and health professionals and teachers to report fgm concerns. I've dealt with a few concerns raised where there was suspicion the girl was being taken abroad for a 'family occasion'. There are now fgm protection orders which can be applied for from a family court, a breach can lead to 5 yrs imprisonment . It's now an offence for uk nationals or a permanent resident to perform it or take a girl out UK for it.
Midwives will report to cyps expectant mothers who have had it done.

That's good to know
At least it's a step forward in the right direction.

It's been illegal since 1985 in the UK -I'll leave you to guess how many successful prosecutions there have been.

By and large, those who have been cut aren't removed from their families in this country (British born girls, I mean, not anyone at all who's been cut): it's judged better to support the family together, partly so that others in the community aren't afraid to come forward if necessary.

Little it's almost impossible to know which, if any, girls have been mutilated, but I am not directly aware of any girls who have been removed from their families - with the caveat that my sample group is really very small in the wider scheme of things.

I know that referrals have been made about specific girls but we are (rightly) not updated on the case.

Who in their right senses expects a soap opera set in the 1960s to push boundaries? No doubt some bright spark at a script conference thought that a FGM storyline would make this televisual chewing gum seem relevant, cutting edge or whatever. That some brighter spark remembered that in the 1960s FGM hadn't been written up exhaustively in The Guardian, so that middle class white women didn't give a toss about it preserves the dramatic unities whilst outraging the sensibilities of the 2010s. For the first time, reading this thread, I understand clearly what virtue signalling really is.

PS when is Mumsnet going to start picketing the houses where mohels live? I'm not holding my breath.