WUNRN
OBSTETRIC FISTULA - PREVENTION,
RECOVERY, CAMPAIGN
As illustrated by thr infographic (below), the
road to obstetric fistula is fraught with delays: delays in the progression of
labour, delays in getting to an appropriate facility, delays in getting the
proper health treatment.
For those women unfortunate enough to sustain
a fistula as a result, some are able to get the advice, care and support that
leads to a brighter future. Meanwhile, an estimated 2 million women and girls
remain left in the isolation of living with a condition that causes
incontinence and intense suffering. The goal of the Campaign to End Fistula is
to prevent the condition from occurring in the first place, and to ensure that
more women have an opportunity to recover from it and regain their lives.
The infographic was produced for the Campaign to End Fistula in partnership with Johnson & Johnson, a long standing supporter of fistula programmes and efforts to reduce fistula and maternal mortality by scaling-up access to maternal health services and skilled birth attendants.
________________________________________________________
MALAWI - INCREASED OBSTETRIC FISTULA PREVENTION & TREATMENT
Malawian women at a UNFPA
funded fistula camp, Zomba Central Hospital, Blantyre,
By Lameck Masina - September 12,
2013
Considered
a condition born of poverty, obstetric fistula can occur in women during
prolonged and difficult child birth or from sexual abuse. It stems from soft
tissue tears, leaving women with urinary or fecal incontinence, in pain, prone
to chronic infections and often isolated and abandoned by husbands, family and
community.
The younger
the woman is when she first gives birth, the greater her risk of fistula.
The United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is teaming up with the Malawi Ministry of
Health to make medical care more accessible to women and to educate the public
on the condition in order to prevent or treat it.
Gift
Malunga, acting country director for the UNFPA in
“We started
with very few patients, because of the myths surrounding the area," said
Malunga. "Some were saying that it is a curse, not a medical condition.
But when we engaged the media to create awareness in the communities, we saw
more and more patients coming to our camps to the extent that, last time, we
could not treat all of them in the camp.”
Malunga
says women leave the camp physically healed, and are given food items, soaps, a
piece of cloth and counseling for easier re-integration into communities that
shun them. She says so far the UNFPA program has helped more than 600 women
with corrective surgeries.
The World
Health Organization estimates some 2 to 3 million women and girls live with
obstetrical fistula in developing countries, with 50,000 new fistula cases
occurring each year.
In specific
regions of
“For
example, in Mangochi [district], I think it’s more to do with early marriage
because when someone is not fully matured and they have prolonged labor, it’s
very easy for the tissues to die and then perforation takes place.”
Some
communities are assisting U.N. and government efforts.
Chief
Kwataine, a senior traditional leader who has acted as National Chairperson for
“As
traditional leaders, we have now ganged up to set some bylaws to ban
traditional birth attendants from conducting deliveries in villages to prevent
the fistula issue," she said. "The second one is to set stiffer
penalties to bar parents from encouraging young girls to get married. We have
set up 21 as age limit to make sure that every young girl or young boy should
attain 21 before thinking of getting married.”
Kwataine
says the penalties for breaking the bylaws include payment of chickens and
goats to traditional leaders.
But despite
these efforts to treat the afflicted, challenges remain, such as an acute
shortage of trained and dedicated medical doctors to repair fistula's damage to
the body.
According
to Malunga, that means U.N.-funded fistula camps must rely on foreign doctors.
“We have
always had this issue of sustainability," she said. "We are saying to
ourselves as UNFPA ‘to what extent do we continue to bring in [medical]
consultancy’? That’s why all the time the consultants are here — they are
training clinicians how to repair, but now the challenge is on the dedication
of the clinicians and doctors we have trained. That one now is beyond us as
UNFPA.”
UNFPA is
scheduled to conduct its second three-week fistula camp in early October at the