Women's experience and perspectives toward genital cosmetic surgery in Erbil city/Iraq: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery is quite prevalent, resulting in a wide range of medical and cultural implications. The majority of women who undergo this operation suffer from anxiety, depression, and other emotional symptoms. The present study was carried out in order to explore women's perspective on and experience of genital cosmetic surgery given their special context and cultural aspects. METHODS: The qualitative study applying content analysis examined the experiences of nine women who received genital cosmetic surgery in Erbil, Kurdistan-Iraq, between 2021 and 2022. Each of the semi-in-depth face-to-face interviews lasted between 40 and 60 min and was conducted at the physician's clinics. RESULTS: Semi-structured interviews led to emergence of two main themes, namely "husband satisfaction" and "self-confidence". Interpreting the participants' stories resulted in some relevant subthemes and meaning units like "ugly appearance", "anxiety related to husband undesirable intercourse", and "dyspareunia". Finally, the related conclusions of each theme were explored. CONCLUSION: As suggested by the study findings, female genital cosmetic surgery improves the women's body image and sexual function and the couples' sexual satisfaction, especially that of husbands. Because of the people's sociocultural aspects in Kurdistan region, their awareness of female sexual needs and marital relationship needs to be raised.

The effect of mother and newborn early skin-to-skin contact on initiation of breastfeeding, newborn temperature and duration of third stage of labor.

Background: Mother and newborn skin-to-skin contact (SSC) after birth brings about numerous protective effects; however, it is an intervention that is underutilized in Iraq where a globally considerable rate of maternal and child death has been reported. The present study was conducted in order to assess the effects of SCC on initiation of breastfeeding, newborn temperature, and duration of the third stage of labor. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted on 108 healthy women and their neonates (56 in the intervention group who received SSC and 52 in the routine care group) at Hawler maternity teaching hospital of Erbil, Iraq from February to May, 2017. Data were collected via structured interviews and the LATCH scale to document breastfeeding sessions. Results: The mean age of the mothers in the SSC and routine care groups were 26.29 ± 6.13 (M ± SD) and 26.02 ± 5.94 (M ± SD) respectively. Based on the LATCH scores, 48% of mothers who received SSC and 46% with routine care had successful breastfeeding. Newborns who received SSC initiated breastfeeding within 2.41 ± 1.38 (M ± SD) minutes after birth; however, newborns who received routine care started breastfeeding in 5.48 ± 5.7 (M ± SD) minutes. Duration of the third stage of labor in mothers who practiced SSC after birth was 6 ± 1.7 min, compared to 8.02 ± 3.6 min for mothers who were provided with routine care (p <  0.001). Moreover, the prevalence of hypothermia in the newborns who received SSC and routine care was 2 and 42% respectively. Results remained unchanged after using regression modelling to adjust for potential factors and background characteristics. Conclusion: Skin-to-skin contact provides an appropriate and affordable yet high quality alternative to technology. It is easily implemented, even in small hospitals of very low-income countries, and has the potential to save newborns' and mothers' lives. It is necessary to prioritize training of health providers to implement essential newborn care including SSC. Community engagement is also needed to ensure that all women and their families understand the benefits of SSC and early initiation of breastfeeding. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03548389.