UNFPA conducts fistula awareness
The United Nations Population Fund or UNFPA in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has seriously warned midwives across the country, who are in the constant habit of carrying on delivery behind the house to stop or face the wrath of the law.
According to the Clinical Assistant for the Liberia Fistula Project, Madam Edmond Kennedy Kartakar, several of consultative meetings have been held with midwives cross the country, advising them to stop the practice and encouraging pregnant women to seek treatment at hospitals and clinics in their communities.
Madam Kartakar made the call in Kakata City, Margibi County during a three-day awareness, warning that if any midwife perform delivery outside behind a house or outside of a health center and the expected mother died, that midwife’s Identification Card will be seized and she will be taking to court for murder under the law.
She narrated that prior to the deadly Ebola virus outbreak in the country, fistula had been on the decrease, but was on the increase due to the closure of many health facilities across the Country.
She explained that fistula is mainly caused from behind the house delivery by midwives, saying, “When a woman is pregnant and she doesn’t go to the hospital for checkup or treatment until time to deliver, the child sometime gets big in the mother’s womb and the mother faces problem in pushing the child out, the child will die in the womb. While the midwife tries to force the child out, it will press on the urine or feces bladder, creating a hold that leads to continuous leakage.”
She advised women with such problem not to be ashamed of the themselves but immediately contact any hospital around for free medical treatment following which they will be taken for rehabilitation and give vocational education before returning to their communities.
During the three days fistula program and awareness in Margibi County, women with fistula problem were identified and their names and contacts collected to receive treatment soon.
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By Ben P. Wesee
