Should you

To shave or not to shave before delivery is the question. Women have been told to shave their pubic hair before going in birthing rooms. In increasing number of cases, they have had midwives do the shaving. But now the thought on perineal shaving (as it is called) has shifted drastically.

“For you to shave a woman, you have [wandered] far into her privacy,” says Ruqayya Wamakko, a medical doctor and the reproductive health coordinator at the FCT Primary Healthcare Development Board.

Now primary health authorities are asking primary health workers to stop the practice. It came as Inclusive Press organised three days of workshop on to help health care workers improve quality of maternal and newborn health care they offer their patients.

In one study in Enugu, nearly 10 in 100 women identified shaving of their pubic hair by health workers before delivery among classes of “disrespect and abuse” they endured during their last childbirth.