As over  235 women suffering from obstetric fistula have been treated using surgical procedures  at the Jahun General Hospital in Jigawa state, Nigeria, since January 2022, the international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is calling for a concerted effort to help women affected to reintegrate into  their communities and to prevent these devastating injuries from occurring in the first place by expanding access to quality maternal care.


About 100 women who suffered from obstetric fistula and successfully completed their surgical treatment are currently preparing to leave the MSF’s programme and return home after a celebration ceremony today, Thursday 8th December.


“The ceremony is also an opportunity to promote the socioeconomic integration of these women who have often been pushed aside. We give them spaghetti-making machine and flour to enable them to start a small business at home as a self-reliance activity”, says Jean-Clément Ishimwe, MSF Field Coordinator in Jahun, Jigawa state. "Around 50 women who successfully completed the fistula treatment will start a rehabilitation and skill acquisition training in January 2023, a program that is supported by the Fistula Foundation and the State Ministry of Women Affairs".


Since 2008, when MSF started its activities in Jahun, the organisation has been providing surgical repairs, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and psychosocial support to women suffering from fistula.


Obstetric fistulas are generally caused during childbirth by prolonged, obstructed labor. That’s why MSF is also supporting quality obstetric and maternal care in Jahun in order to contribute to prevent fistula and other complications from happening. 


From January to November 2022, 235 women suffering from fistula were successfully treated with surgical intervention, while 282 women had their fistula repaired in 2021. During the same period, MSF team in Jahun provided 33,917 women with antenatal care, assisted in 12,519 deliveries and another 1,626 deliveries through caesarean section.


It is estimated that 2 million women and girls live with obstetric fistula worldwide, most always due to complications which arose during childbirth. In addition, this condition often leads to shame, isolation and stigma, with husbands, families and communities excluding the women who suffer from it. 


Most of these women usually live in abject poverty, shunned, or blamed by society which lead them to fall deeper into poverty and further despair. Many of the women who develop fistula lose their baby to stillbirth, which adds to their depression, pain, and suffering. Nigeria is one of the countries in the world with high prevalence of obstetric fistula. 


If not treated, obstetric fistula leads to lack of voluntary control over urination or defecation and a range of other physical ailments including frequent infections, kidney disease, painful sores and infertility.


“Our MSF teams in collaboration with Jigawa state Ministry of Health provide skilled care during pregnancy and delivery and high-quality emergency obstetric care for all women who develop complications during delivery”, says Pamela Olik Ooko, MSF Head of Mission in Nigeria. 


“Our activities thus improve the quality of emergency obstetric care in Jahun General Hospital, thereby reducing maternal mortality, still-births, and the burden of fistula particularly in Jahun and Jigawa state as a whole”.


To sustain Jahun General Hospital energy use, MSF also inaugurates a solar power project which is aimed at improving the quality and reliability of electricity supply. This multi-annual project will reduce the carbon footprint and the energy costs of the hospital's budget up to 40% from its current total energy consumption. 


 _Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare. MSF has worked continuously in Nigeria since 1996, and currently provides medical care, free of charge, in 11 states across the country.