Thanks to the agency USAAID, ten thousand women in third world countries have successfully been relieved of a serious vaginal injury caused during childbirth [Vaginal delivery].
Fistula can have an awful effect on women and if left untreated even cause death.
It happens when a woman suffers from a long drawn out labor and the baby’s head is too big to leave the womb without medical intervention. In countries where doctors are not available to take emergency action, the results are Fistula.
Usually the baby dies in childbirth and the mother suffers from severe incontinence, infections and kidney disease, on top of that social isolation will often result.
The condition can be surgically repaired with a very straight forward procedure which is what has been carried out in the United Sates on the 10,000 women. USAAID spokesman Gloria Steele believes this is only the start of what could be achieved in developing nations.
A team of local medical professionals, state officials, other international groups and the people of America’s support can have a massive effect on the health of poorer countries.
Simple measures like family planning, being made readily available could reduce death and disability by up to twenty percent. Raising awareness of Fistula and ensuring women know what to look out for is crucial as is the provision of more trained surgeons who can perform caesarian sections and other relevant surgical procedures.
These figures are seen as a key landmark in the improvement of worldwide maternity health care and there are many other similar medical conditions that are more or less unknown in the western hemisphere.
