DISABILITY INFO > Physical Impairment > Fistula
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FistulaLeaking and left outAccording to the UNFPA, 2 million women in developing countries live with obstetric fistula. At cbm we are dedicated to preventing fistula and mums and babies from death and disability. Obstructed or prolonged labour can cause obstetric fistula. The baby rarely survives. While in the birth canal, the continual pressure of the baby can cause a hole to appear between the vagina and bladder or rectum. This leads to a constant leak of urine or faeces. Every day young women in remote villages in Africa continue to give birth in isolation with no access to emergency medical help. The results can be heart-breaking. You can help. This can be prevented.  Eva's storyTen years ago Eva went into labour in a hut in her rural village in Tanzania. Two days had passed. Something was wrong. “I was in terrible pain, there was no-one to help me,” she recalls. After three painful days Eva travelled for hours by bus to her nearest hospital. Her child was stillborn and Eva was leaking urine uncontrollably. “The doctors said my baby was inside me for too long. They couldn’t do anything to help me so I just had to go home,” she says. “I tore up old clothes and tried to stop the urine and faeces. No matter how many times I washed myself I could still smell myself. I didn’t feel good.” Eva’s community shunned her because of the offensive smell. She lived like this for five years. “I didn’t know who to ask for help,” she says. “So I just lived with it.” The harsh reality is that only one third of child births in Tanzania are attended by a properly trained mid-wife. A cbm partnered hospital provided Eva with the operation that restored her life, her dignity and her hope of motherhood. Now Eva has given birth to a beautiful daughter she named Atukuzwe which means ‘Praise the Lord’. |
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