GREATER ATTENTION NEEDED FOR SAFE CHILDBIRTHS, UN URGES ON INAUGURAL DAY TO END OBSTETRIC FISTULA

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From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 23 May 2013 12:00:00 -0400
Subject: GREATER ATTENTION NEEDED FOR SAFE CHILDBIRTHS, UN URGES ON
INAUGURAL DAY TO END OBSTETRIC FISTULA
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

GREATER ATTENTION NEEDED FOR SAFE CHILDBIRTHS, UN URGES ON INAUGURAL
DAY TO END OBSTETRIC FISTULANew York, May 23 2013 12:00PMThe
prevalence of obstetric fistula – a preventable and treatable
condition linked to women's reproduction – among women and girls in
developing countries is a denial of their human rights, senior United
Nations officials today said urging global action to make childbirth
safer.

"The persistence of fistula is a result of human rights denied and a
reflection of human rights abuse," Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive
Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), said in his
<"http://www.unfpa.org/public/home/news/pid/14206">message marking the
first-ever International Day to End Obstetric Fistula.

"It reflects chronic health inequities and health-care system
constraints, as well as wider challenges, such as gender and
socio-economic inequality, child marriage and early child bearing, all
of which can undermine the lives of women and girls and interfere with
their enjoyment of their basic human rights."

An estimated three million women and girls, nearly all in developing
countries, are affected with another 50,000 to 100,000 new cases
developing each year, according to figures cited by UNFPA and the UN
World Health Organization (WHO).

An obstetric fistula is a hole in the birth canal caused by the baby's
head pushing against the mother's pelvic bone during contractions,
often without adequate medical care during prolonged labour. The hole
forms between a woman's vagina and her bladder or rectum, causing her
to leak bodily fluids.

The newborn rarely survives, if it is born live, and renders the woman
incapable of having more children. Shunned by their families and
communities, women with fistula are often poor and marginalized.

According to UNFPA, women and girls with obstetric fistula are usually
poor, often illiterate, with limited access to health services,
including maternal and reproductive health care.

"In an age of rapid globalization in which mobile and e-technologies
have changed the face of human communications and revolutionized the
frontiers of science and medicine, it is unconscionable that the
poorest, most vulnerable women and girls continue to suffer needlessly
from this scourge," Mr. Osotimehin said.

Reconstructive surgery to fix the condition cost around $300 in 2010
according to the global Campaign to End Fistula, which UNFPA leads and
coordinates with a wide range of partners. The campaign is based on
three key strategies of prevention, treatment and social integration.

Over the past decade, the agency provided support to more than 50
countries, resulting in fistula treatment and care for some 34,000
women and the training of thousands of health-care personnel in
prevention and management.

"We are training more health workers close to where people live so
that they don't have to travel long distances before they get the
service," Mr. Osotimehin told UN Radio. "We don't have to have a
midwife that is super-qualified. You can actually train a cadre of
staff over a short period of time to be able to deliver good quality
service under supervision."

Where prevention is not possible, treatment is more often an option.
In Mozambique, 16-year-old Essita Mulhanga underwent surgery to repair
her fistula.

"I had to deliver at home. My husband was not at home to help me.
After delivering, this problem of being incapable to control my urine
started," Ms. Mulhanga told UNFPA in a clinic in the town of
Espungabera before undergoing the surgery this past March.

"After treatment I would like to have kids, and would like to see them
studying to become doctors or teachers," she said.

In a 2012 report, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged dramatically
intensified political and financial mobilization to accelerate
progress towards ending obstetric fistula.

He called for at least $750 million to treat all cases of obstetric
fistula by 2015, the deadline for the eight anti-poverty targets known
as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) towards which the UN is
boosting efforts in its "1,000 days of action" campaign.

"This is part of our broader effort to reach the Millennium
Development Goals and mobilize partners in the Every Woman, Every
Child initiative," Mr. Ban said today in his message on the Day.

"The benefits reverberate far beyond the women who are directly
affected, extending to children who will be raised by healthy mothers
and communities that benefit from their contributions."

In his report, Mr. Ban noted three interventions that have the most
important and immediate impact on maternal death and disability:
family planning; attendance during childbirth by skilled health
personnel, such as a midwife; and emergency obstetric care, in
particular Caesarean sections.

Early marriage is also an issue with adolescent girls particularly at
risk for obstetric fistula at a much higher rate than women in their
twenties.

Highlighting the importance of the International Day to End Obstetric
Fistula to raise awareness of the condition, Mr. Ban said: "The more
understanding and action we generate today, the more we can look
forward to a future where obstetric fistula is virtually unknown
because it is virtually non-existent."May 23 2013 12:00PM
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