2 Million women living with obstetric fistula globally – UNFPA
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has estimated that globally there are at least two million women living with obstetric fistula conditions.
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It is also estimated that about 50,000 to 100,000 new cases of the condition develop every year among women.
Obstetric fistula is a hole between the vagina and the rectum or bladder that is caused by prolonged obstructed labour, leaving a woman unable to control her urine or faeces or both.
The Assistant Representative of the UNFPA, Mr Bawa Amadu, made this known when he delivered a speech on behalf of Dr Babatunde Ahonsi, the Representative of the UNFPA, during the commemoration of the third International Day to end obstetric fistula at Wechiau in the Wa West District in the Upper West Region.
The UN General Assembly has designated May 23 every year as International Day to End Obstetric Fistula and the annual commemoration continues to raise awareness and intensify actions towards ending obstetric fistula.
The day was on the theme: “End Fistula, restore women’s dignity.”
Statistics
Each year, 300 million women worldwide suffer from complications of pregnancy and delivery and for every woman who dies out of maternal-related causes, at least 20 women experience morbidity of which obstetric fistula is one of the severe forms.
It is in line with these occurrences that UNFPA and its partners launched a global campaign in 2003 to end fistula; after which the UNFPA Ghana, in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the then Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, followed up with a national launch in 2005.
Mr Amadu said the UNFPA supported more than 57,000 fistula repair surgeries for women and girls globally, adding that their campaign partners had enabled many more to receive treatment and rehabilitation as part of the UNFPA’s three point approach: prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.
He said in collaboration with the GHS and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, at least 1,500 women had been treated and that more were expected to be treated this year.
The Assistant UNFPA Representative said since 2010, a total of 197 had received income generating skills, which had benefited them and their families economically and also facilitated their social integration.
Mr Amadu noted that with the right combination of political will, leadership, financial commitment and the scaling up of evidence-based, cost-effective, quality interventions, as well as ending forced marriage, ensuring girls education and practicing voluntary family planning, they could end what he described as “needless suffering of millions of women and girls”.
UNFPA support
Madam Paula Baayel, a Chief Nursing Officer, said in 2012, with UNFPA support, a total of 113 fistula cases were assessed and 92 underwent repairs out of which 81 were successful, giving a success rate of 88 per cent in the Tamale Fistula Centre alone.
She announced that the regional hospital recorded a total of 45 fistula cases from 2011 to the first quarter of 2015, with the highest of 15 cases in 2011.
The Medical Director of the Wa West District Hospital, Dr Edward M. Kolbila, said from 2006 to date a total of 28 fistula cases had been identified in the district, with 25 of them already treated while the remaining three who were identified in 2015 were being prepared for treatment.
Narrating her ordeal, Amamata Abdulai, an obstetric fistula survivor, said she got the condition when she gave birth at the age of 18 but she was thankful that through UNFPA and GHS support she had been treated and was going about her normal duties without any rejection from the general public.
Source: GNA