[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 2569]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 OBSTETRIC FISTULAS--INTL. WOMEN'S DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 3, 2010

  Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I rise to draw our attention to a 
worldwide problem we could do much more to resolve: obstetric fistulas. 
Imagine you are 13 years old. You are married against your will to a 
much older man and become pregnant. When the baby is due, you have no 
medical care. Your body is too small. The baby gets stuck. You nearly 
die.
  But instead, you wake up to learn that it is your baby who has died, 
and you now have a fistula--a hole caused by the days of prolonged 
labor and resulting rotting away of internal tissue. You are 
incontinent and cannot walk. You are shunned by your husband and your 
village. It is hard to imagine being so alone.
  But this is the real story of Mahabouba, a young girl in Ethiopia. 
And an estimated 2 million women like her suffer from obstetric 
fistulas--though we need much better data on this problem. They have 
suffered in this unspeakable way because they lacked maternity care, or 
were married too young, or even because their husbands would not let 
them go to the hospital.
  As we mark this day, let us raise our voices for these women. Let us 
commit our power and our compassion to providing life-saving maternity 
care and to preventing these tragedies. Let us help them to stand up 
and bring new hope for their future.

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