The article "After a Devastating Birth Injury, Hope", was sad but also very intriguing. The article discusses the negative effects young women in Dodama, Tanzania encounter after giving birth. Many of these ladies suffer several health issues; such as nerve damage in the legs, rectum issues, and/or death, but the most common one is called fistula. Fistula is a hole that allows urine to leave the body through the vagina, and is caused by obstructed labor. Obstructed labor can be caused by several things, such as malnutrition, height, slight frames and/or narrow hips just to name a few. As a result, when these women in Dodama goes into labor it sometimes last three days, resulting in a babies death, and a mothers health issues. Due to the lack of resources and medical staff over 2 million woman and girls in the Sub-Saharan and Asia area are effected by fistula. Because Dodama, is considered one of the worlds most poorest countries, medical teams are sent there to perform operations on these young women to help restore their "life".
I found this article to be very depressing, but also informative. I was oblivious to these problems woman in Dodama, Tanzania face. I am very happy that they have a medical staff whose willing to perform these operations, but at the the same time astonished at the environmental conditions in which they have to be performed in. 2 to an operating room, a mouses running on the wall, and in "sweltering heat"!http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/health/24hospital.html?scp=2&sq=February+24+2009&st=nyt
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i read this article, too. i appeared on the front page of the Times on the 24th, accompanied by a photo that i couldn't look away from. yes, you are right, in the US, we aren't always aware of the suffering of those who live in other countries -- and it is fortunate that med personnel volunteer to work with populations like the women in Tanzania. given the struggle these women having giving birth, it's amazing that the US has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world!
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