The Deputy Northern Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Jacob Mahama, has appealed to men not to abandon or neglect their wives when they develop fistula complications in order not to frustrate them.
Dr Mahama made the appeal when he launched the �Fistula Free Northern Ghana� programme in Tamale at a workshop organised by the Net Organisation for Youth Empowerment and Development (NOYED), a youth-centred organisation.
Fistula, considered an accident of childbirth, happens as a result of prolonged obstructed labour and the condition leaves many women uncontrollably leaking urine or faeces as a result of which they are stigmatised or ostracised.
He said inadequate midwives and doctors in the region was a leading cause of fistula because most doctors refused postings to the region and indicated that most of the cases of fistula, which led to maternal mortality, were as a result of unprofessional care given by some unskilled Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs).
Dr Mahama advised husbands in the Northern Region, especially those in the rural communities, to encourage and accompany their pregnant wives to attend antenatal clinics to ensure that they were safely delivered of their babies to minimise maternal mortality.
Chief Alhassan Issahaku Amadu, Board Chairman of NOYED, said fistula was still prevalent in the Northern Region and expressed worry that a lot of pregnant women in the region were not receiving antenatal care saying, �Most women with fistula were most often discriminated against�.
Mr Alhassan Abdulai Iddi, Executive Director of NOYED, said the organisation was focusing on Dufaa, Paganaa, Jerigu and Gbelahibilla communities due to the high incidence of fistula cases and urged all the volunteers of GHS to engage and educate community members more on fistula.
Madam Esther Dodoo, Deputy Director of Nursing Services of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), stated that early births, malnutrition, female genital mutilation, sexual violence and insufficient Calcium and Vitamin D were leading causes of fistula.
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