A Walk to Beautiful Assignment

By: Andrew Azevedo
A Walk to Beautiful Assignment
An obstetric fistula is a condition in which a hole develops between the bladder and vagina or rectum and vagina due to loss of blood supply to the surrounding mucosal tissues. Usually, the causes are attributed to prolonged labor due to small pelvic cavity that hinders development causing the baby to press against the tissues and resulting in inadequate blood profusion and necrosis of the surrounding tissues. Other factors include rape/sexual abuse, surgical trauma, cancer, poorly performed abortions, and pelvic fractures. The prominence of fistulas occurs in poor and underdeveloped countries that do not readily have access to healthcare especially when the above circumstances occur. The women usually wait months to years to address health issues due to work and inability to travel long distances to seek out medical aid. Some of the biological and social factors that contribute to the number of fistula patients especially among women are the age of the female, the inadequate knowledge of seeking medical aide, and the lack or inability to seek out medical attention so readily. The age contributes to the fistula rise because younger women are getting pregnant and the baby is not able to handle the conditions of birth in such a small and tight body frame. The lack of nutrition and constant hard work and labor contribute to the unhealthy and inadequate body frames of these young women. The inadequate knowledge of what happens when the baby is stillborn, the complications that arise, and the fact that medical personnel do not assist during this process contribute to the poor knowledge that if was instilled to begin with, would allow immediate medical care to these women. The poor communities usually have mothers and midwife pregnancy conditions that are not scientific in nature but simply a provided assistance to deliver the baby. Therefore, women are unaware of why babies are born stillborn and assume it is a