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Fistula

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Fistula

A fistula is a hole in a woman’s birth canal between the vagina and the bladder or rectum. Typically, this is a birth injury caused by obstructed labour. Urine or stool leaks continuously through the fistula, and many women are shunned by their families and communities as a result.

This devastating injury is most common in areas where there are few hospitals or midwives, and a woman with a complicated childbirth may be in labour for days.

Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) provides surgery to correct the damage, and psychosocial care to help women returning to their communities.

Pippa Letchworth
Obstetrician / Gynaecologist
Obstetrics in Nigeria: Meeting the “real heroes”
Pippa is an obstetrics and gynaecology consultant from the UK on assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Jahun, part of northern Nigeria’s Jigawa state – an area where high numbers of women and children die during childbirth. In this blog, she shares her experience of meeting a local surgeon.
02 Oct 2018 / 3 minute read
Onyeka Martins Madueke
Field Administration
Overcoming fistula in Nigeria: “Everyone who gave up on these women was wrong.”
On the day of a special celebration for women who have completed their treatment, Martins shares their story of resilience, joy and recovery…
16 May 2018 / 5 minute read
Jared Watts
Obstetrician / Gynaecologist
Obstetrics in Nigeria: “The mood in the operating theatre was electrifying”
Obstetric fistulas are injuries that most often occur during childbirth, when a baby gets stuck in the birth canal, causing a hole to develop between the mother’s vagina, and her bladder or rectum. Faeces or urine leak from the fistula constantly, meaning many women with these injuries are shunned by their families and communities. Jared is in Jahun in northern Nigeria, where the MSF / Doctors Without Borders team is working to tackle the problem…
03 Dec 2017 / 4 minute read
Jared Watts
Obstetrician / Gynaecologist
Obstetrics in Nigeria: “Most of the women were laughing uncontrollably”
Obstetrician-gynaecologist Jared Watts is in Jahun, Nigeria, on his first assignment with MSF. This week he joins the Wednesday Dance Club, where shaking your hips is essential therapy...
15 Nov 2017 / 3 minute read
Lauralee
Doctor
Fistula
"Obstetric Fistula is the single most dramatic aftermath of neglected childbirth." — WHO
17 Mar 2008 / 2 minute read
Tirana Hassan
Advocacy
Dusty and hot
Galcayo is dusty and hot, when you look around this is the type of picture that someone who has never been here probably has of Somalia.
14 Nov 2007 / 2 minute read
Tirana Hassan
Advocacy
Fistulas and Fighting
Today I am en route to Galcayo, that is a town on the cusp of a region of Somalia they call Puntland. MSF runs quite a big hospital here.
13 Nov 2007 / 3 minute read

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Florian Lems/MSF
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