World
For Uganda’s Women, Action on Traumatic Childbirth Injury
In this photo taken Tuesday, June 5, 2012, Ugandan women walk out of the Constitutional Court disappointed after losing a case against the government over maternal deaths during childbirth, prior to taking the issue further to the Supreme Court, in the capital Kampala, Uganda. Writing on t-shirts in English and Swahili reads “Not another needless death: Government stop deaths of mothers now”. (AP Photo/Stephen Wandera)
(Daily Mail) – After suffering the tragedy of giving birth to a stillborn child nine years ago, Anna Grace Amuko was left with a debilitating condition.
Amuko suffers from obstetric fistula, a hole in the vagina or rectum caused by prolonged labour without treatment, which means she leaks urine uncontrollably. Millions of women in developing countries suffer from the injury, and also endure the social stigma arising as a result of it.
“I’m smelling every day,” said Amuko, 39, sprawled out on a bed in crowded ward 11 of Kampala’s Mulago Hospital.
“My family are not very happy. I have a husband but he says he’s tired of it now. People fear living with me. I like always to be with people, but because of this I don’t go anywhere, even church, not even to the market.”
