Let’s create awareness to end obstetric fistula – Dr Nyuzaghl

Dr Josephat Nyuzaghl, the Deputy Director in charge of Public Health at the Upper East Regional Health Directorate, has said awareness creation in communities was a critical way to end the high prevalence of obstetric fistulas recorded in the Region and country at large.

He said it was necessary for expectant mothers to deliver at health facilities because they would be given proper care, and offered antenatal services.

“In our health facilities, we have a tool we call pathograph, which we can use to monitor the progress of labour, and as soon as there is a possibility that the labour would be prolonged, a decision is taken to intervene. Surgery is done and this issue of fistula will not come up.”

“That is one area we need to focus on, while we still try to liaise with development partners to see how they can support us with outreach visits to undertake surgeries for people who need them.”

Dr Nyuzaghl was speaking at the International Day to end Obstetric fistula, held in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital, organized by the Essential Relief International (ERI).

He said the Region was currently funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to identify women with such conditions, mobilize them and a team of surgeons would come and perform the surgeries, adding that “There is support; we just have to look for the cases.”

The Deputy Director noted that because of the stigma attached to the condition, most affected women were not comfortable disclosing their condition. “Most of them are marginalized, the discrimination is just too much. When you see the fistula patients, they do not have confidence.”

He urged relatives of such patients and members of the public to support them psychologically so that the issue of stigma could be eliminated to enable them freely visit health facilities to be identified and given the needed support.

Dr Nyuzaghl explained that fistula most of the time occurred after difficult delivery. “Labour that has been prolonged, the head of the baby is compressing the soft tissues of the bladder and the rectum against the back of the female bony pelvis. That is the most common way of getting fistula. It is possible to get fistula through a surgical procedure that has gone probably wrong.”

He emphasized that “You can have delivery after fistula surgery, but in most cases they will not allow you to go through vaginal delivery because if that happens, it is possible one can develop the condition again. So most of those deliveries are done through Caesarian Section”.

He said generally mortality rate resulting from fistulas were very low, but with the unhygienic nature of the condition, it was possible that affected persons could develop other infections that were associated with the condition because such patients leaked urine or faeces or both from the vagina.

Dr Nyuzaghl said fistulas that were not managed well, could lead to complications and those complications could lead to death.