Fistula

The only medical facility in Burundi providing free, comprehensive treatment for obstetric fistula may close due to a lack of trained medical staff

Giving birth in Somalia is incredibly dangerous, but it's made slightly less so by the huge efforts of MSF’s Somali staff. 

Trained with the aid of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Dr. Valentin Vadandi is one of the few experts in obstetric fistula surgery in the world.

Obstetric fistulas affect more than two million women around the world. MSF's fistula camp in Boguila treats women for this devastating child-bearing injury.

Obstetric fistulas are one of the most serious consequences of obstructed labor. An estimated 2 million women in developing countries are living with fistulas, many on the margins of society.

Women who survive complicated deliveries can develop fistulas. Struck by incontinence, they live hidden away from others, resigned to their fate and suffering in silence.

Drops of sweat run down her neck, but her eyes are lit up. Mary Nicizanye is recovering at the MSF center in Kabezi just south of the capital, Bujumbura. Four days ago she gave birth to a little girl here.

In 2007 a group of 11 women suffering from vesico-vaginal (VVF) fistulas approached MSF nurse Esther Moring and her medical team in eastern Chad, asking for treatment. In order to help those women and countless others with fistulas in eastern Chad, Moring and an MSF team initiated a pilot fistula surgery program. Here, Moring describes what fistulas are and why starting this project was so important.