USAID sent out a press release yesterday announcing the award of the Fistula Care Plus Project to EngenderHealth and the Population Council. We, at the Maternal Health Task Force, look forward to working with EngenderHealth to reduce the incidence of fistula around the world.
Taking one more step toward improving maternal health globally, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announces the award of the Fistula Care Plus Project to EngenderHealth and its institutional partner, the Population Council. Obstetric fistula, a hole that develops between the birth canal and one or more of a woman’s internal organs, is caused by obstructed labor without access to timely and skilled medical care, such as cesarean section. Delaying the age of first pregnancy and increasing access to contraception are also critical to the prevention of fistula. Fistula results in chronic, uncontrollable leakage of urine and/or feces, a devastating lifelong disability that affects a significant number of girls and women in Africa and Asia. New cases, all preventable, are continuing to occur. Often women who have fistula from obstructed labor also bear the sorrow of the loss of the baby.
To read the entire press release, please click here.