In the News
Roads to Rehabilitation
- 18 November 2010
Asha Makocho steps out from the gloom of her small one-roomed apartment into the Tanzanian sunlight. She holds a turquoise and yellow shawl, its vivid colours contrasting against her otherwise dark clothing.
For two years, Asha was trapped at home in fear and loneliness by the medical condition known as obstetric fistula. This is where a hole develops between the vagina and rectum, or vagina and bladder, as a result of the pressure of the baby's head against the pelvic bones during extended labour.
Asha, now 26, became pregnant for the first time at 23. Her boyfriend left her four months later. Alone and scared, she was in labour for four days. Like 90% of women who experience fistula, Asha's baby was stillborn and she was left with what the World Health Organisation has called "the single most dramatic aftermath of neglected childbirth".
Read the full story from the Guardian
