A ray of hope for fistula victims

A woman on the doctor's examination bed.For every woman that gets treatment ,at least 50 go without.

What you need to know:

It’s the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, and here is a short story of how the preventable condition could occur in a young girl here in Tanzania.

Tomorrow is a big day to campaign for a woman’s dignity—a day when people across the world are expected to raise their voices against Obstetric Fistula—a condition that leaves women incontinent, subject to infections as well as other health complications.

It’s the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, and here is a short story of how the preventable condition could occur in a young girl here in Tanzania.

A girl too physically immature to undergo childbirth is subjected to child marriage and adolescent pregnancy. She complies, unfortunately.

Then, sadly, the expected happens and the young girl conceives. But due to her physical condition, she ends up in prolonged obstructed labour.

During the birth process, the trauma caused by the difficult labour ends up creating a hole between her vagina and rectum or urinary bladder. But this scenario occurs mostly in facilities that lack modern health services.

The hole; is actually what then comes to be known as an Obstetric Fistula. It’s called obstetric because it occurs during childbirth.

The “hole,” actually the fistula, leaves the woman unable to control urine or faeces or both. She smells. Her close neighbours then stigmatise her.

Yet, when all this occurs, she doesn’t know how and where to access treatment for her problem—and in fact—in certain communities in the country, she may not consider it as a medical condition. The United Nations has observed the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula since 2013, with the aim of raising awareness of the issue and mobilising support around the globe. This year’s theme is “hope, healing, and dignity for all.”

Campaigners are stepping in to address it through high profile platforms, such as tomorrow’s big day due to the condition’s persistence, as a sign of global inequality.

Women with obstetric fistula are often abandoned by their husbands, they live in isolation. In some traditional settings in Tanzania, suffering from fistula is considered as a curse.

For every woman that gets treatment, at least 50 go without. We know that one million women in this world suffer from untreated obstetric fistula, shows data from fistulafoundation.org.

Yet, the Global Fistula Map reports that between 2010 and 2013, only 60,280 women received fistula repair surgery; about 15,000 per year, on average.

It’s because of this that The United Nations has observing the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula since 2013. The day, 23 May, is meant to raise awareness of this issue and mobilize support around the globe.