Imagine a life living alone and being ashamed. Imagine a life where you have no control over the leaking urine and feces dripping down your legs. Imagine a life where your partner, your family and your friends cannot bear to be around you. Imagine a life, where you wonder whether dying during the birth of your baby would have been more welcome than living with the consequences of a harmful pregnancy. And when maternal mortality is a preferred choice over maternal morbidity for women in developing nations -- as Americans, we must stand up and take action.
With headlines around the nation screaming of wars, environmental disasters and a fledgling economy, the bi-partisan introduction of "The Obstetric Fistula Prevention, Treatment, Hope and Dignity Restoration Act of 2010" by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE) is inspiring and hopeful enough to put the microphone in the hands of the two million, voiceless women who are victims of obstetric fistula. The bill, H.R. 5441, calls for the authorization of funding to prevent obstetric fistula, to treat those already suffering from the condition, and to enable the women and girls who undergo fistula repair to return to productive lives.
Fistula typically occurs due to obstructed labor. After being in labor for agonizing hours, and in some cases, days, without access to a doctor, the baby is generally delivered stillborn and the woman is left with a hole between her bladder, vagina and sometimes rectum. This results in uncontrollable leakage that is discovered early in the post-partum period. In some cases, the woman is also left crippled from nerve damage.
For Americans, it is a difficult concept to visualize. Perhaps this is because we cannot conceive the trauma of obstetric fistula, which has virtually been eliminated from Europe and North America. Or, perhaps, it is because it is an uncomfortable issue to think or talk about. Or, maybe it is due to the fact that we are barely exposed to it. After all, we haven't suffered from fistula since the late 1800s, when the last known fistula hospital stood on the site of today's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.
A disease that is nearly a century old to us is being fought daily in the countries around the world. That is why when life saving legislation, like H.R. 5441, is introduced we must work together to restore hope, health and dignity to the women who suffer from this debilitating disease through no fault of their own. The passing of this bill will also free up funds to provide access to quality maternal healthcare services, family planning, skilled birth attendance, and emergency obstetric care - all of which will go a long way to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity in developing nations.
The lifetime risk of an American woman dying due to pregnancy or childbirth is just 1 in 4,800. However, for a woman living in Sub-Saharan Africa, that risk is 1 in 22. Worldwide, for every woman who dies of maternal related causes, at least 20 women experience a maternal morbidity, of which obstetric fistula is one of the most severe forms. These are the facts, and they are horrific.
But there is good news. Thanks to initiatives like the Global Campaign to End Fistula, led by UNFPA, obstetric fistula is being addressed in 47 countries around the world. With the support of many partner organizations the Campaign promotes a comprehensive strategy to ending fistula based on a three pronged approach: prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.
With success rates as high as 90 percent for less complex cases, the average cost of surgery is a mere $300 - less than the average cost of a smart phone in America. Treated women who once led a life of isolation and shame are able to reintegrate into their societies, support themselves, their families and their communities.
Sarah Omega, an advocate for ending fistula is a native of Kenya who delivered a stillborn child through a c-section after eighteen gruesome hours of labor. Three days after her delivery she realized she had developed obstetric fistula. And she lived with it for 12 years, before finally having her fistula repaired. You can listen to Sarah speak first hand about her experience of living with fistula here.
This week, 3,500 advocates from 140 different nations will convene in Washington, DC from June 7-9 at Women Deliver, the largest ever conference on maternal and child health. The head's of five UN agencies plus the Secretary-General, will attend the conference -- an extraordinary lineup for a non-UN conference. With the spotlight shining bright on the issues of women's health, I hope you will join us at Americans for UNFPA to step up to the plate and tell Congress to support "The Obstetric Fistula Prevention, Treatment, Hope and Dignity Restoration Act of 2010."
To reach out to your Member of Congress visit: www.americansforunfpa.org/takeaction.
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The world is full of terrible tragedies. Americans have big, big hearts. I don't want to discourage that, rather, there is another solution. I am not heartless, but.....
We got to toughen up, demand change.
How?
One suggestion that I made, on the HP, and got ripped to shreds over, was that when our country gives money to Haiti, it should have conditions attached. Love is conditiona
Coincident
It is the same with any cause.
Are we responsibl
There are many solutions and they don't have to be tax and spend solutions.
And yet, we continue to send our tax dollars, and private donation to such countries, with no strings attached. Attaching strings to our donations will be the true salvation for these men women and children, and ourselves. Healthier societies will rise from the poverty and soon be able to contribute to their betterment rather than always being the dogs begging for scraps from the childrens table.
If these organizati
There is an article put out by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), titled the School to Prison Pipe Line. It exposes the terrible practice of abandonmen
Shockingly
If we can create one industry, we can demolish it by creating another industry.
Teachers need assistents in the class room, and perhaps more than one in the early years, especially
We could create programs that train tutors, which would in return create jobs.
There is my idea. When one system arises demolish it by raising another with the same tax dollars that protects and preserves and values human life. Imagine that.
However, if the underlying cause of the problem is not corrected there will be an ever increasing number of repairs needed.
It is the same with AIDs in Africa. It is ever increasing
So, what is the answer? How are the religious views of these nations changed? Should the religious leaders be held accountabl
Let the message be loud and clear, "This is a direct result of your religious beliefs and practices"
Let the Catholic Church, for example, understand that they are causing world wide poverty. If they are the creator, then they are the effect. It is a wealthy church, let them fix their problems. Let them lead the way. If they want to shine, let them shine.
That won't happen as long as the rest of the world bails them out of the mess they are creating.
Fistula's are not caused by FGM but by blocked labor, the baby's head lodges against the vagina and cuts off blood supply so the tissue dies and creates a hole between the vagina and other organs. Women who are malnourish
I'm glad to see there is heightened awareness of this problem. A simple surgery could give these women their lives back.
And yes, I agree it should be funded privately.
Conclusion
http://www
I have read that female circumcisi
Are we being asked to fund the damages of a barbaric practice?
Stop the practice of female circumcisi
Make a concerted effort to educate the culture, and let that effort be supported by other members of the same culture; their religious affiliatio
The correct term is Female Genital Mutilation
Read about this horrific procedure on Google.
We have been taught a messiah complex, and self crucifixio
"Women in the US have a greater chance of dying from complicati
http://www
I recently read an article that the AMA want to reintroduc
Bull Sh**. When you understand what they are doing, and why they do it, you understand no little prick will satisfy them. The reasons behind female circumcisi
This is outrageous
Enough of eroding western values.
"Female Circumcisi
The correct term is Female Genital Mutilation
What actually is done to these young girls is the equivalent of cutting off the tip of a guy's penis, and I don't mean the foreskin. I mean the TIP OF THE PENIS.
There is a huge difference between a guy being circumcise
Will they have the courage to speak out against the corruption in these countries? Will they have the courage to band together and do something other than rape western countries?
I doubt it. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?
I get skin cancer, and have no medical insurance to pay for it. I pay the cost. No one helps me. I use sun screen and try to limit my time in the sun.
It is very offensive when others are raping the system to send back home, but don't support the citizens in this country. Where is their loyalty, here or there?
What should be an issue of willful, voluntary, and genuine humanity but has become a poltical football game. We are no longer one nation, supportive of our fellow citizens, but a divided nation; a nation divided by loyalty; dual citizenshi
However...
...when 20-somethi
And especially when the "family planning" component of such aid is likely to get nixed by the right-wing moral majority-e
No, sorry. We have some major home-based housekeepi
I am waiting to hear about women who have the courage to start taking the riligious extremists to task, such as the Pope. When there is an outcry so loud that I can step outside my door and here it, I will muster up the few dollars that I have, because I do have the empathy, and I am sure you do too,
I also have the courage to confront both the religious extremism and those in the western culture that don't, specifical
Go back and read the article. You didn't understand it.
If men in the 3rd world were not patriarcha
It isn't caused by attitude.
Tho you don't believe it, physical reality does exist.
If you ever looked up the codes of law in ancient Rome you would know that women had to wear full covering veils, their movements were restricted
Women were not allowed to testify.
And yet, we WEstern women rose from the ashes, in great hardship, struggle, obstacles, through disease, calamity, destructio
And there were honorable men who stood by our sides, and there were dishonorab
It is caused by attitude. They could be rising, and building hospitals, and schools, and creating jobs, and participat
We did it, they can too.
It has been reported in the news, that many of these individual
These individual
Please think of them. If congress is to be Robin Hood, maybe congress can remember who put them there, who paid their salary for years, who paid for the perks, and gold standard medical coverage.
Thank you for your time.
I'm going to assume that you didn't actually read the article ... cause while wanting to get our own house in order before helping out elsewhere is understand
The doctor didn't help him. He died.
The suicide rate is up. Alcoholism
There is a little girl that needed a surgery that would restore her hearing...
We have what the ACLU calls a School to Prison PIpeline. Children with disabiliti
There are as many needs here, and just as serious as there.
Is it fair that you take my tax dollars for your cause and call mine trivial?
I am sure that you don't care as long as it is someone elses dollars. And you are entitled to your opinion. And I mine.
There were tent cities springing up all over America just last year. But, hey, if it wasn't you I guess it doesn't matter.