She explained that FGM has several classifications, and any form of genital alteration done for non-medical reasons, including the so-called “husband stitch,” falls under this category.
Shattered, broken, traumatised, Faith* has not been the same since she had her first child in 2023. “I will never have another child again. Childbirth damaged me permanently,” she said.
It all started when she realised she was pregnant in October 2022.
Having lost her mum to childbirth when she was barely four years old, Faith was intentional about having her first child. From researching helpful guides on pre- and post-pregnancy to reading the experiences of mothers on social media, she actively prepared for the big day.
She wanted to do everything right, to rewrite her mother’s story.
However, nothing prepared her for her experience on 23 April 2023, when she eventually welcomed her child. A moment that was supposed to mark joy and fulfilment became the beginning of a haunting pain.
“I had a tear from my vagina down to my anus after delivery and had to be stitched. I was really screaming because the pain was out of this world,” she told DUBAWA, recounting her experience.
Faith said she initially thought it was normal stitching to fix the tears associated with vaginal delivery, but later realised it also included the ‘husband stitch,’ a procedure that involves making the vagina tighter for sexual intimacy. “When my husband came into the delivery room after the whole stitching, one of the midwives said to him, ‘Oh, we made it tighter for you,” she recalled.
The mother of one said the realisation worsened her postpartum trauma. She recounted how the pain in her vagina has persisted since childbirth, flaring up intermittently even though her son is now two years old. The recurring discomfort, she said, has taken both a physical and emotional toll on her.
“I think part of the trauma affected me to the extent that I couldn’t even produce breast milk. For over two weeks, I wasn’t able to walk,” Faith added.
Husband stitch, also called daddy stitch or vagina knot, is an additional suture or series of sutures placed when repairing a vaginal laceration or episiotomy after childbirth, often with the purpose of tightening the vaginal introitus for the male partner’s sexual pleasure.
Odunola Abiola, a gynaecologist and obstetrician at the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, explained that the procedure involves an additional stitch beyond the one a woman is supposed to have after a tear during vaginal delivery, although it is not medically approved.
“It is called husband stitch because it is often framed as for the husband’s pleasure. It is to narrow the vaginal opening for the husband’s pleasure during sex,” Caitlin LeMay, the executive director of the US End Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Network, told DUBAWA.
While health officials who engage in it claimed that the procedure enhances sexual pleasure after childbirth, many women who underwent it countered the narrative.
Faith explained that after the experience, her husband told her that her vagina did not get any tighter, undermining the very essence of the supposed procedure.
“The first time we tried to have sex, it was really difficult—it wasn’t pleasurable at all. I think for me to have sex now, it would take a lot. Maybe I’d have to use lubricant or something, because I’m still traumatised,” she noted.
Hassana, a mother of five in Kontagora, Niger State, also said the procedure worsened her sexual experience. “The pain is so much, and it has made me detest sex,” she noted.
DUBAWA’s findings revealed that in many cases, health officials administer the so-called “husband stitch” without the woman’s consent.
“I wasn’t fully conscious when doctors put the husband stitch. I don’t know if they asked my husband for permission,” Hassana, who operates as a commercial pepper grinder, disclosed.
Our findings show that some women only become aware of the procedure afterwards, either when birth attendants mention it as a favour supposedly done for their benefit, or during conversations between health officials and their husbands.
An Ibadan-based woman, who pleaded anonymity, said the procedure takes advantage of women in their most vulnerable state.
“No one asked me whether I wanted it or not; consent was not sought at all, but I remember the doctor said to me, ‘I made it tighter for your husband,’ with a smug smile on his face. At that point, I could not make sense of what he was saying because I was still in the labour ward. It was after everything that it all started to make sense to me,” she said.
Kaduna-based Zainab also said her consent was not sought, but confessed her husband mentioned her vagina got tighter and “he enjoys sex even more.” She faulted the idea behind the husband stitch and argued that women’s consent should be sought before performing such a procedure on them.
Another woman, who told DUBAWA her consent was sought, said she did not like the eventual outcome. “I feel that as much as they do it for the husband’s pleasure, it shouldn’t be at that period in time,” she said.
Qudus Lawal, a consultant gynaecologist at Irrua Specialist Hospital in Edo State, described the procedure as “a form of medical malpractice,” particularly when performed without a woman’s consent. Mr Lawal told DUBAWA that any medical procedure done without informed consent amounts to malpractice, regardless of the intent.
A major conversation over the procedure is the intent, which places the sexual satisfaction of men over the safety of women, despite global maternal death figures. According to a UNICEF report, Nigeria is among countries with “the highest risks” of maternal death, with one in 25 cases recorded. Despite this disturbing reality, some health officials engage in husband stitch, a procedure considered medically unsafe and with no proven health benefit to women.
A 2024 report published by the International Continence Society (ICS) revealed that the husband stitch exposes women to health complications, including vulvar and vaginal pain, scarring, dyspareunia, and trauma. The report established that roughly 85 per cent of births result in vaginal lacerations or episiotomy, leaving many women vulnerable to undergoing the “husband stitch.” It added that while repair of a tear or cut in the perineum may be medically necessary, an extra stitch, or “husband stitch,” has no documented medical benefit to the patient.
“The whole idea of the husband’s stitch to me is barbaric. Why should there be an extra stitch because you feel like it will make sex pleasurable for you? What about the person who is feeling the pain? There’s no part of the husband’s stitch to me that should be okay,” Faith quipped, burning with rage.
“Anybody who administered it, who even thinks of it, should be arrested, and I’m saying without prejudice that if I had known at that time, I know the steps I would have taken. However, since it’s been a long time, I’m no longer in that state. I will just maybe let it go, but one of the things I’m doing is to lend my voice, consent or not, husband stitch should not happen.”
Findings by DUBAWA revealed that many women who consented to the procedure did so, not for any medical benefit, but out of the belief that it would help them satisfy their husbands and preserve their marriages.
Videos and posts analysed on social media showed some women encouraging pregnant and expectant mothers to ensure they request the procedure from the health officials during delivery and brace for the pain associated with it.
