obstetric fistula
the most devastating problem you’ve never heard of
Every year, 536,000 women die in childbirth. This staggering number pales in comparison to more than 10 million whose lives are destroyed from devastating childbirth-related injuries. When limited access to emergency obstetric care collides with obstructed labor, the results are catastrophic. One such catastrophe is obstetric fistula.
Obstetric fistula is a hole in the birth canal caused by days of unsuccessful labor. Prolonged obstructed labor cuts off the blood supply to the tissue planes that separate the urinary tract and rectum from the vagina. The woman is almost always left with a stillborn baby and unrelenting incontinence of urine or stool. This has dramatic negative social consequences, usually resulting in complete rejection from family and community.
A simple surgery can normally repair the injury, with success rates as high as 90%. However, very few women know that their condition is treatable and if the do know, they cannot afford to get to surgery. While limited treatment capacity exists, there is virtually no focus on helping these women reintegrate into their communities. This is where OperationOF comes in.
We empower local people to go deep into the most remote rural villages and find women suffering in silence. Once we find these women, we get them to treatment that includes surgery and psychological counseling. While the women wait either before or after surgery, our local social workers offer skills-based entrepreneurial training. After training, we take the woman back and insert her into a local economic development group that we offer microcredit support. The group gets attractive financing, the fistula survivor has a social support network and a path to empowerment.
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