Issues We Address
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Obstetric Fistula
PMC addresses critical women’s health issues, such as obstetric fistula. Obstetric fistula develops when blood supply to the vaginal tissues and the tissues of the bladder and/or rectum is cut off during a prolonged obstructed labor. The tissues die and a hole forms through which urine and/or feces leak uncontrollably. Women with this condition are often abandoned by their husbands, families and communities and cast into a life of isolation, rejection and depression. Furthermore, because of her condition, a woman who is affected by fistula has little prospect for work, her family life is shattered, and she is often left in poverty to rely on the charity of others. Obstetric fistula has been identified by UNFPA as “the most devastating of all pregnancy-related disabilities.” Read more on PMC’s program in Nigeria, Mobilizing through Media to End Fistula
The primary risk factors that lead to obstetric fistula are early and/or closely-spaced pregnancies and lack of access to emergency obstetric care. Despite the fact that improved obstetric care and the use of the cesarean section eradicated fistulas in western countries by the end of the 19th century, women in the developing world continue to be plagued by the condition because of a lack of obstetric care, lack of adequate health care infrastructure, and a dearth of trained personnel. A woman living in a rural area, without access to any emergency obstetric care, faces a greatly increased risk of obstetric fistula should a complication arise during childbirth. Less than 60% of women in developing countries give birth with a trained professional.
While fistula is the result of a medical complication of childbirth that arises in approximately 15% of all births, the root causes are poverty and the low status of women and girls that cause them to give birth at a young age, and, often, without medical attention. Because of these reasons, the WHO has labeled obstetric fistula as “the most dramatic aftermath of neglected childbirth.” Poverty is the main social risk factor as it is often the reason for early marriage, malnutrition and unattended delivery. Childbearing at a young age greatly increases the risk of an obstructed labor because the pelvis is not yet fully developed.
PMC’s programs role model the benefits of delaying the age of marriage and child spacing to prevent obstetric fistula and other complications related to too early, too frequent, and unplanned pregnancy and childbirth. In northern Nigeria, PMC has partnered with Rotary International, where PMC’s radio serial dramas direct women to fistula treatment centers operated by Rotary. Read more about PMC’s program in Nigeria: Gugar Goge.
