One doesn’t have to think hard about how difficult life can be when you do not have access to appropriate healthcare services and facilities. The developing world and countries at war are continually burdened and the ones who pay the heavy price for this strain are most often women and children. In many societies an added problem comes from gender inequality and a lack of adequate education on healthcare, in particularly female issues, including childbirth. On such preventable and treatable medical condition that thus plagues many women and girls is fistula.
Fistulas, is abnormal connection or passageway between two epithelium-lined organs or vessels which normally are not connected. The types of fistulas that most commonly are faced by women and girls are vesicovaginal and rectovaginal, which most often occur in the case of violent or gang rape, very often done with objects, such is so commonly seen by victims of the use of rape as a weapon of war. The second type is obstetric fistula, which develops when blood supply to the tissues of the vagina and the bladder, and/or rectum, is cut off during prolonged obstructed labor, this is most often due to the mother having a small or under developed (flat) pelvis, thus occurs frequently in the case of child mother and thus is most common in countries with a higher level of child marriages. Fistula which is caused when tissue dies, thus causing a hole to form from the vagina to the rectum, which then causes urine and/or feces pass through uncontrollably. According to the World Health Organization some 2 million women are living with untreated fistula, and around 100,000 women will develop fistula each year.
The effects of fistula are harsh on it’s victims both physically and psychologically, as victims are often abandoned and social ostracized. Many women and girls also suffer additional verbal and physical abuses by their husbands, families and communities. The main reason for such sever reactions from the condition are based on sheer misunderstanding of the condition, which has led to its continued silence. The first battle to be won against fistula is that the silence against fistula must be broken, for only then will the feeling of shame be lifted from the shoulders of 2 million women and girls and treatment for the condition be increasingly sought. The second battle against fistula is to see that the 100,000 women and girls who are afflicted by this preventable condition are saved from the burden, by increasing education and awareness on women’s health and gender issues, increasing access to adequate healthcare facilities and services, and preventing gender based violence and rape warfare. Thus gender equality is at the forefront in winning the battle against fistula, and freeing millions of women and girls from a life of needless shame.
Related News and Resources:
Campaign to End Fistula
The Fistula Foundation
Women’s health care in war zones neglected: Red Cross
UN campaign helping global South combat obstetric fistula receives award
The Info Project – Fistula
Education key to preventing fistula
Saving lives with trained birth attendants
