In fact, the entire dialog of an OF conversation is full of words that make most children giggle and some adults blush. If OF is an unsettling topic for us to talk about, imagine what living with it must be like.

Obstetric fistula is one of the most neglected health issues affecting women today. Many women and girls in the rural developing world give birth at home. A variety of factors can cause these unattended births to become obstructed and in the absence of emergency obstetric care, these women are forced to endure days of labor.

During the attempted labor, the contractions to deliver the baby compress the woman’s soft tissue between the head of her baby and the bones of her pelvis (as shown above). This extended pressure cuts of the blood flow to parts of that tissue base, causing the flesh to die (necrosis).

Eventually, the dead tissues sloughs off and leaves an unnatural gap, or fistula, in the flesh separating the woman’s bladder from her vagina (VVF) or in the flesh separating her vagina from her rectum (RVF).  This devastating injury results in the continuous leaking of urine, feces, or both, and makes normal life impossible. 

Afflicted women cannot escape the ensuing foul odor and efforts to hide their condition are eventually futile.  As their stench grows intolerable to those around them, these women begin to lose elements of their social and family networks. 

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