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Men urged to support wives with fistula
Dr Angela Clare Namala prepares one of the fistula patients who turned up at the hospital for the free medical camp in Jinja on Friday. PHOTO BY DENIS EDEMA
What you need to know:
Important. Dr Namala said husbands’ support gives indirect healing to the patient.
Jinja. Dr Angela Clare Namala, a senior gynaecologist at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, has called on husbands of wives with obstetric fistula to desist from abandoning them as they struggle to overcome the burden.
Obstetric fistula is a hole between the vagina and rectum or bladder that is caused by prolonged obstructed labour, leaving a woman unable to control urine or feaces or both. The condition is mostly common among teenage mothers below the age of 18 as their bodies are usually not ready for reproduction.
Dr Namala made the call in Jinja on Friday where 90 fistula patients underwent free operations courtesy of the Rotary Club of Jinja, the Rotary Club of Waterlooville in the UK, and the United Nations Population Fund.
She said husbands of 89 of the women who turned up for treatment had been conspicuously absent, which signifies a lack of support on their part.
“Only one man turned up to be there for his wife out of the 90, yet this gives indirect healing and it also makes our work easier,” she said.
Giving an overview of the exercise, Dr Namala said 74 out of 90 women were treated for urine incontinence, adding that 87 of the cases had been successfully treated. Three have since been referred to Mulago National Referral Hospital.
The president of the Rotary Club of Jinja, Ms Rosemary Namate, said the club had partnered with other organisations to organise the medical camp after it emerged that many women are either being abandoned or rejected by their husbands and family because of the condition.
The numbers
1 million
The number of women who suffer from obstetric fistula, according to Global Fistula Map data. Fewer than 20,000 of the women are treated each year.
