When birth is life and death
They’re forced to labour without medical assistance in squalid conditions for days, sometimes weeks.
As a result, many of these women and babies end up dying.
Those who do survive are often left with weeping wounds – a condition that sees them shunned from their villages and often unable to conceive again.
Such a scenario can be difficult to imagine in light New Zealand’s health system.
But the plight of the Ethiopian women hasn’t escaped a group of midwives in Waikato.
Community midwives Christina Campbell and Lara Evans, Waikato DHB midwife Karen Barnes, and supporter Janet Macklin, are hosting a high tea to raise funds to get local midwives trained and working in those villages.
The funds will go to the Hamlin Trust, a charity that has established a hospital in Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa to treat women with obstetric fistula.
The condition affects women after childbirth when torn body tissue becomes infected, leaving weeping wounds.
‘‘There is no help for these women and we can do something, so we should do something,’’ Barnes said.
‘‘Just because it’s happening somewhere other than New Zealand, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help.’’
It is estimated that more than two million young women live with untreated obstetric fistula in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Health Organisation.
Women who experience obstetric fistula suffer constant incontinence, shame, social segregation and health problems.
The trust provides training to local midwives and doctors so women get proper antenatal and post-natal care.
‘‘This is something that doesn’t happen in New Zealand,’’ Barnes said.
‘‘But it’s a huge fear for women in thirdworld countries because there’s a large percentage of them dying during childbirth because they’re bleeding or have an obstructed labour and they’re miles away from any type of healthcare.
‘‘They will labour in a small village and often go to the local witch doctor or healer.
‘‘By the time they’re taken to an outlying clinic to get treatment, often the baby has died.’’
The group raised $800 last year and are hoping to double that amount this year.
‘‘Every single day we provide the care and the knowledge for mothers, so if we can do something to help, we should,’’ Campbell said.
The high tea will be held at the Link Community Centre, on the corner of Te Aroha Street and River Road, on Friday, September 14, from 11am to 1pm.
There will be music, entertainment, prizes and raffles.
Tickets are $20 and can be purchased by emailing janetmacklin2@gmail.com or calling 027 4366 567 or 07 823 0402.
‘‘There is no help for these women and we can do something, so we should do something.’’
Midwife Karen Barnes