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[Obstetric fistulas remain a public health crisis in most of the developing word but particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where health infrastructure is inadequate. This chapter provides a critique of the narrative that obstetric fistulas are a “women’s issue”. Instead, obstetric fistulas are positioned as an outcome of complex structural failures that undermine the efforts of women seeking emergency obstetric care. In particular, Kenya remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a woman and pregnant, with an estimated 3000 women and girls developing fistula annually, and 300,000 cases of untreated fistulas in the ever-increasing backlog. To understand the full picture of the obstetric crisis in Kenya, one must consider the structural face of health care and the gendered way in which it stratifies and marginalises women seeking care. Through this theoretical lens, the chapter also critiques the popular and dominant discourses that attribute fistulas to just ethnicity and culture. It highlights how the obsession with putting African cultures under intense scrutiny while discussing fistulas, minimises the attention we pay to structural factors contributing to them and therefore does little to offer a nuanced analysis of the problem and the nature of its complexity.]
Published: Sep 20, 2022
Keywords: Obstetric fistula; Incontinent bodies; Maternal health; Kenya; African women; Culture; Feminism; Emergency obstetric care; Maternal death; Obstetric complications
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