Yvonne Baradahana and other women sing while on their way to the Urumuri Center, run by Doctors Without Borders in Burundi, for fistula repair surgery. Baradahana is now 49 but has suffered from an obstetric fistula since a home birth in 1991. A fistula occurs during problematic labor and results in incontinence that can completely derail a woman's life if it's not treated. Doctors Without Borders (known by its French acronym MSF) has been providing maternal health care, including treating fistulas, in emergency situations across the globe. The organization is launching Because Tomorrow Needs Her, an awareness campaign for women's health issues, on March 4. Here are the stories of mothers they've treated.
Martina Bacigalupo/VU
Baradahana is comforted by a nurse at MSF’s Urumuri Center in Burundi before her fistula repair surgery. “I’m a little frightened but I know they are going to make me better,” she said.
Martina Bacigalupo/VU
Baradahana at home with her three children after her successful operation.
Martina Bacigalupo/VU
After Edna Maulana was diagnosed with HIV, her husband turned his back on her. She took refuge with her relatives, who supported her until eventually he returned and wanted to know how they could keep their baby from becoming HIV-positive. After treatment and counseling on how to prevent transmission, the virus didn't get passed to her daughter. "When I went back at two years they tested her again and told me, ‘Your child is definitely negative. Thank you for your great work and care of this baby,’" Maulana recalls. "I was extremely happy when they told me that.”
Sydelle WIllow Smith
Many women like Maulana are ostracized by their husbands and communities after being diagnosed with HIV.
Sydelle WIllow Smith
This 20-year-old woman arrived at MSF’s hospital for obstetrical emergencies in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She was suffering from a perforated uterus, excessive bleeding, and loss of fluids after an abortion performed by a non-licensed doctor, known locally as a "charlatan." Abortions that are self-inflicted or performed by non-medical personnel are on the rise in the still-recovering island nation, due in part to laws prohibiting the procedure and economic barriers preventing access to proper health care services.
Patrick Farrell
A student of a girls’ school in Port-au-Prince walks by a mural depicting the suppression of women in the country.
Patrick Farrell
Twenty-year-old Chantal is examined by an MSF nurse at Kabezi State Hospital in Burundi. They're worried her two previous Caesarean sections will put her at risk for uterine rupture. Every day, about 800 women around the world die from easily preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth—the vast majority in under-resourced countries like Burundi.
Martina Bacigalupo/VU
Chantal is transferred to another hospital for surgical care. Around the world, 15 percent of all births require skilled emergency care in order to save the life of the mother, the baby, or both. An MSF project in Kabezi implemented a new ambulance response system that helped to reduce the rate of maternal deaths by 74 percent.
Martina Bacigalupo/VU
Even with proper care, nurses found Chantal's baby was in a breech position and she could be at risk for a potentially deadly rupture. Here, a nurse prepares her to enter the operating room for a C-section.
Martina Bacigalupo/VU
A few days after delivery Chantal and her baby are healthy and happy.
Martina Bacigalupo/VU
Twenty-three-year-old Evelyne already has four children. After a botched delivery on the side of the road while trying to get to the hospital, Evelyne developed a fistula. She arrived at an MSF clinic in Burundi to have it repaired and is being consulted by an anesthesiologist in preparation for the surgery.
Martina Bacigalupo/VU
Relieved after a successful surgery, Evelyne smiles on the surgical table. Unfortunately, she's the exception: Only a fraction of the estimated 30,000 to 130,000 women who develop a fistula every year have access to surgery.
Martina Bacigalupo/VU
