Obstetric Fistula
What is Obstetric Fistula?
Obstetric fistula is a preventable and mostly treatable condition that primarily affects young women from poor backgrounds. Fistula is one of the most devastating of all pregnancy-related disabilities. Usually the result of obstructed labour coupled with a lack of skilled medical care, obstetric fistula most often leads to permanent incontinence – a continuous leakage of urine and loss of control over bowel movements.
How does it happen?
A vaginal fistula, which usually affects pregnant women, results from prolonged labour, usually lasting two to five days, with delivery occurring only after the baby dies. During labour, the baby’s head and the woman’s pubic bone form a vice, cutting off blood flow to the tissue trapped in this area. Following delivery, the dead tissue flows away, leaving an abnormal opening between the birth canal and the bladder (less frequently the rectum). Unable to control the flow of urine (and/or faeces), the woman is perpetually wet. Affected women are often abandoned by their husbands and ostracised by their families and communities.
Fistula Statistics
- The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that every year between 50,000 and100,000 women sustain an obstetric fistula during childbirth.
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that more than two million women are currently living with obstetric fistulas, a large proportion of which in Africa.
- Women with fistula tend to be young, illiterate and poor, and live in remote areas.
Transformational health care through Fistula Programmes
Bringing Hope and Healing
Mercy Ships aims to reduce the effects of fistula in women in West Africa by providing specialised medical treatment and training. Mercy Ships uses hospital ships and partners with land-based programmes to deliver transformational health care to the forgotten poor.
Fistula Repair Operations
On board our ship, Mercy Ships performs free fistula repair operations for affected women. The healed patients are given new outfits and headdresses as symbols of their restored life
Training & Prevention
To help build the capacity of health care systems in developing nations to address the condition of fistula, Mercy Ships networks with and provides training for local & international health care professionals including surgeons, nurses and traditional birth attendants.