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Kenya

Agony of women living with fistula

Ong’udi met her guardian angel earlier this year while attending a medical check up at Kenyatta.

A fellow patient told her that Guru Nanak was offering treatment for people like her and she decided to pursue the venture.

Today both Ong’udi and Emma Wambui can afford to smile after they underwent the reconstructive surgery at Guru Nanak on Sunday and they are now fistula free.

According to the Chairperson of Flying Doctors Society or Africa Eunice Kiereini 3,000 new cases of fistula are reported each year in Kenya.

Kiereini said the majority of these cases are preventable if proper medical attention is given to a mother during delivery.

“The main cause of fistula is obstructed labour, not having the baby delivered in good time or complications at child birth.”

“The cases are rising because women are not informed and before the women could not access medical care because of the costs.”

“Some women especially in the grassroots do not know the importance of giving birth at the health facility and they often opt to give birth at home.”

Kiereini added that fistula has not been acknowledged and given the necessary attention adding that some communities have associated it with witchcraft accusing the women that suffer from it of having being cursed.

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Speaking as the launch of surgical camps at the Guru Nanak Hospital, she announced that their campaign will by the end of the year offer corrective surgery to 200 women country wide.

Obstetric fistula is a medical condition in which a hole develops between a woman’s private parts with either the rectum or the bladder after severe or failed childbirth, when adequate medical care is not available

It may also occur due to lack of health care personnel during the labour period especially in cases of obstructed birth process and the situation is usually worse off for new mothers especially in their teenage years because their pelvis is still too small for the baby to pass through.

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