How an obstetric fistula affects the everyday life of a woman
An abnormal opening between the vagina and the bladder or rectum is the obstetric fistula, which leads to continuous urinary or fecal incontinence. When women do not have access to reliable emergency obstetric care facilities, it is primarily caused by very long or obstructed labor.
Constant urinary incontinence is encountered by women who undergo this preventable illness, frequently leading to social isolation, skin infections, kidney disorders and even death if left untreated.
In poor, rural areas where the women affected live in dirt-floor dwellings and lack access to drinking water and incontinence pads, obstetric fistula most frequently occurs.
A woman with a fistula faces devastating physical and psychological effects under these conditions. She suffers from constant infections and discomfort without being able to control the leakage of her body's waste. Her scent scares her husband, family and friends away all too much.
With little cultural awareness of fistula and its causes, a woman is sometimes blamed for her disease. She lives in solitude too much, unaware that her injury is shared by others and that it is treatable. Since fistula normally develops during the first pregnancy of a woman while she is in her teens or early twenties, if it is not fixed, she will likely suffer for decades.
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