Imagine never, ever feeling clean — no matter how much you wash.
The constant discomfort, agony, and deep shame.
This is Mary’s reality right now. And it’s been this way for her for the past 13 years!
Ever since she suffered a childbirth injury of the most horrific kind – fistula.
But you can set her free from this horror! Your healing gift can help Mary get the corrective surgery she needs right away.
You might not have heard much about fistula.
That’s because this injury rarely happens when mothers give birth in Australia.
It happens when the physical pressure of a baby trapped in the birth canal during a long labour tears a hole through to a woman’s bladder, and sometimes her rectum.
Not only is this extremely painful… it’s enough to put a tiny baby’s life at risk.
Thankfully, Mary’s baby survived this traumatic experience. But so many babies don’t make it in communities like hers. In the midst of unimaginable grief when a mother loses her child, these situations can also leave her with a painful reminder in the form of a fistula.
Mary didn’t realise her fistula injury had happened until later.
Too often, mothers in Mary’s situation are not aware of their fistula until after they have been discharged from hospital.
Mary describes her horrifying discovery…
“I first noticed I had a tear, it was maybe two or three weeks after child birth. I noticed that if I use the toilet and clean up, when I go back to the toilet I always see there are some remnants of faeces.”
Imagine Mary’s horror to experience this uncontrollable leaking — not just of urine, but also passing faeces in her urine.
Please will you help end this horror?
Your caring gift will help mums like Mary by providing urgent corrective surgery, by training local health professionals to diagnose fistula sooner, and by raising awareness of fistula in the community.
In communities like Mary’s, the condition is so poorly understood that many doctors lack the knowledge and skills to identify and diagnose it.
Mary recalls…
“When I went for a post-natal check after the delivery, I complained and the doctor then said he couldn’t find anything.”
So, instead of receiving the medical help she needed, Mary continued to suffer for more than a decade with an untreated fistula!
Mary shares how her daily life is affected, like her ability to work…
“When I go to the office, I do not like to use the toilet. Because I will have to take time in cleaning up… Any time I’m in the toilet, I’ll be saying God, come and fix this for me… What I’m looking for is to get better.”
Here’s what your gift today could do for mums like Mary.
You could help CBM Community Based Health Workers to raise awareness of the truth about fistula in communities like Mary’s.
You can set a mother like Mary free from the horror of fistula for good by helping to cover the cost of the corrective surgery she desperately needs.
You can help us to train more health professionals throughout communities like Mary’s so they have the skills to detect, diagnose, and treat fistula rapidly and effectively.
So often, women like Mary are cast aside to suffer alone.
Mary’s husband has stayed by her side, sharing in her desperation for help. But many women are rejected by their own husbands and forced out of their homes.
Some are made to leave their communities entirely.
But you can help ensure CBM Partner health workers like Nurse Victoria can free more women like Mary from the horror of fistula.
Nurse Victoria says…
“Some of these women we meet had to go about with this fistula for 20, even 30 years! They have not been able to get hope or a solution to this problem.
They have spent money and they keep going from one place to the other. Sometimes some of them, because they could not afford the cost, they remain like that…
Until they get to know about this program that is organised by CBM. Free repair, free surgery, free opportunity, free hope given to these women.”
Every moment is agony for women with fistula. Please send your healing gift now to help free a mum like Mary from horror!