Dr. Jah says Obstetric Fistula is dehumanising, urges government to double efforts

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By ALIMATOU S. BAJINKA

Dr. Abubacarr Jah, a Neurologist and Fistula Surgeon has said people with obstetric fistula are often times treated inhumanly, urging the government to double efforts in providing accessible and available maternal services in the country.

“Obstetric fistula is a dehumanising disease,” Dr Abubacarr Jah told participants at the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula.

According to research, 500,000 women and girls are estimated to be living with fistula globally.

This year’s theme: End Fistula Now: Invest in Quality Healthcare, Empower Communities! The theme calls for investments to improve the quality of care and involving as well as engagement of communities from the planning through evaluation of health interventions.

As designated by the United Nations General Assembly, annually May 23 marks the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula.

Speaking at the DK Jawara International Conference Centre on Tuesday, the renowned Gambian surgeon said this deadly disease has more dehumanising symptoms than that of cancer.

He explains that obstetric fistula is a hole between the birth canal, bladder, and rectum, which is an injury mostly sustained during childbirth.

Dr Jah said it is situation when a woman cannot control urine and leaks continuously.

“The urine continues leaking all the time, and drops come from the kidney to the bladder, where you have a hole joining it to the vagina straight down. There is no stoppage as they leak all the time,” he stated.

According to him, despite the disease being one of the most serious and tragic childbirth injuries, yet little support is rendered and the condition is accompanied by stigma and discrimination from their own people.

“These women cannot go to the bathroom all the time to wash themselves because every minute the urine comes out, so they get smelly, their private parts get rashes and they are ashamed to come out because they don’t want people to perceive their smell while their families are ashamed of them and would distant from them,” Dr. Jah said.

He added that some of these people would go to the extent of sleeping near the toilet for easy access to the toilet.

He pointed out that these women cannot sleep on mattress because it would be soaked with urine as a result they are left in that condition and treated inhumanly.

The Gambian surgeon further states that, obstetric fistula is caused by prolonged labour without access to timely and high-quality medical treatment.

“You get it when you are delivering a baby and it is because you have not been able to deliver the baby in time, most of the babies died, this happens to women who cannot deliver a baby naturally and need a C-Session. It can be because the child is too small or the woman delivering the baby is too small or the child is big and the bones are not yet developed for the baby to come out,” he expounded.

While listing the number of losses that women encountered after they get obstetric fistula, Jah observed most men would abandon their wives due to the woman’s condition.

He noted that most of them would lose their babies that create hole inside their bladder, leaving them to leak urine all the time.

Dr. Jah clarified that early marriage is not a cause to obstetric fistula but it is lack of accessible and available maternal health care services.

“The real reason why the West was able to eliminate fistula is only one thing, which is available and accessible maternal services and that is all there is nothing else. If we say that our problem in Africa is early marriage then there is no problem. You don’t have early marriage in the West but you still have lots of teenage pregnancies and none of them gets fistula, this is because they have accessible and available maternal services with c-sessions. We still have some cases, and these women with fistula are in hiding because of the stigma and lack of accessible and available maternal services.”

Mrs. Fatou Dumbuya, a woman who lived with the condition, explained how she underwent fistula surgery repair that gave her a second chance to regain her dignity to become who she used to be.

“I am a survivor of vesicle vaginal fistula, I got the condition the first night after marriage, I visited a health facility and I was told I have fistula, I spend days at the facility and I was operated, I later realise that the operation did not go well, after three months I got pregnant and I was told that because of the condition I have to go for a C-session,” Mrs. Dumbuya said.

She said after she gave birth, her condition deteriorated and was living in pain for 3 months until she got the helped of the Health Ministry, encouraging women living with fistula to come out from hiding to seek help.

“I encourage you all to come out and seek help, it is available. I would like to thank my husband, who stood by me throughout the process,” she concludes.

As part of the commemoration of the world Fistula day, UNFPA launched a National wide campaign to End Obstetric Fistula by 2030