We can end shame: Fistula is curable

As a result, they are often excluded from their families and communities. 

Obstetric fistula is a childbirth injury caused by prolonged obstructed labour. It occurs when pressure from the baby’s head compresses the mother’s soft tissue in the birth canal, which obstructs blood flow. Without blood, the tissues die and a hole forms between the bladder and the vagina or the rectum and the vagina.

Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT) is a Tanzanian health care organisation which works to prevent disability, provide affordable medical and rehabilitative services, and aid empowerment of people with disabilities and their families. It also seeks to prevent disability through early identification by strengthening the maternal and newborn health system throughout Dar es Salaam.

To help remove barriers to treatment, CCBRT covers the cost of all obstetric fistula patients’ treatment, accommodation, and meals throughout their course of care. CCBRT also supports six partner hospitals in Tanzania to provide treatment, making fistula care more accessible for all Tanzanian women. Last year, CCBRT and its partner facilities performed 1,012 fistula surgeries.

In the same vein, the government has said plans are underway to ensure specialised clinical services aimed at curbing the increasing number of deaths caused by the pregnancy-related obstetric fistula disease are available right across the country. 

The comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care services will be installed in all public health centres. The services will target pregnant women experiencing fatal complications, including severe bleeding, infection, prolonged or obstructed labour, and eclampsia, as well as newborns with asphyxia.

They will be provided with safe blood transfusions, provision of oxytocin and antibiotics, caesarean section surgery, manual removals of the placenta, assisted vaginal delivery, controlled abortions, and resuscitation of newborns. Although official figures show that roughly 3,000 women suffer from obstetric fistula in the country each year, the number is much lower than the real situation on the ground where most cases go unreported for fear of stigmatisation for patients.

Only 113 of the country’s 484 public health centres are providing the treatment services in a comprehensive manner so far.

The target is to ensure the remaining centres also do the same, he said.

The government first launched its National Fistula Programme in 2005.

At least 400,000 expectant mothers die every year in the country due to complications arising from being unable to afford the necessary delivery kits. We are told that the government will distribute baby delivery packs to 500,000 women in the country.  This is a commendable move to bail out the victims.

The national health policy of 2007 is aimed at improving the health status of all people in the country, including the elderly and expectant mothers.

Indeed, such services are the only proven approach to saving the lives of women who die while pregnant, giving birth, or right after birth. Available data shows that hundreds of thousands of women die each year worldwide due to fistula, a disease caused by a hole in the birth canal leading to delayed or obstructed labour.