UNFPA

Today, I attended the “Too Young to Wed” discussion spearheaded by The Elder’s “Girls Not Brides” partnership, part of the 57th Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations. Dr. Carole Presern, Director, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health introduced the panel, which was moderated by a very animated Ms. Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvonda. The panelists discussed the causes, solutions, and brainstormed actions and policies to end child marriage, or as Dr. Carole Presern exclaimed, “child rape.”

Whenever we visit clinics and talk with health authorities, we’re amazed by health statistics that impact women. For example, here in Uganda, the average number of children each woman has is 6.2. That keeps Uganda at the very top of global fertility rates. Since 6.2 is an average, that means some women have more. It’s also a major factor that contributes to high maternal mortality ratios in Uganda and specifically in the districts where we’re working to reduce preventable deaths caused by pregnancy and childbirth.

We started our day at Dhaka Medical College’s teaching hospital where we learned more about one of the most common pregnancy-related morbidities (or disabilities) that poor women endure in childbirth; obstetric fistula. An obstetric fistula is when a woman suffers an obstructed labor, ultimately tearing a hole in her birth canal. Fistulas lead to incontinence of urine, feces and often cause infertility. Equally as devastating is that most women with fistulas are ostracized by their families and communities. The good news is that there is a surgical procedure to treat fistula and 90% of fistula cases can be repaired. Yet still, many women who suffer are not aware that this surgery may be available to them and as a result they can endure lifelong emotional trauma. Obstetric fistula is a condition that is simply hard to ignore once you understand its implications.