Relief as women say goodbye to stigma of fistula

Sisters Sabina Mwikali (left) and Regina Kilaka recover in hospital after fistula surgery with Dr Norris Onzere. [Photo: Benjamin Obegi/Standard]

Kenya: Every woman who suffers from obstetric fistula knows too well that society does not have kind words for her. Word will travel the whole village that she cannot control her bowels. Good friends will part ways, especially in the hour of need. The husband who brought her to hospital to deliver will flee immediately the nurse says she has obstetric fistula.

The condition is brought on by prolonged labour; the sustained pressure of the baby’s head on the mother’s pelvic bone damages her soft tissues, creating a hole, or fistula, between the vagina and the bladder. The result is constant leaking of urine and faeces.