Unsettling the fistula narrative

Cultural pathology, biomedical redemption, and inequities of health access in Niger and Ethiopia

Bibliographic Data

ID2171435
AuthorsAlison Heller (Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland at College Park, College Park, MD, USA), Anita Hannig (0000-0003-4733-0392, Brandeis University, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume24
Issue1
Pages81-95
Publication date2017-01-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology and Medicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1364-8470 • E-ISSN: 1469-2910
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13648470.2016.1249252
PMID28140615
OpenAlexW2583663932
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited23

Obstetric fistula, a maternal childbirth injury that results in chronic incontinence, affects an estimated one million women in the global south. In the course of media and donor coverage on this condition, fistula sufferers have been branded as 'child brides' who, following the onset of their incontinence, become social pariahs and eventually find physical and social redemption through surgical repair. This narrative framing pits the violence of 'culture' against the potency of biomedical salvation. Based on over two years of ethnographic research at fistula repair centres in Niger and Ethiopia, this paper challenges this narrative and argues that most women with obstetric fistula remain embedded in social relations, receive continued familial support, and, unexpectedly, experience ambiguous surgical outcomes. This paper interrogates the existing logics of the fistula narrative that have had the unintended effects of obscuring global structural inequalities and diverting attention away from systemic health access reforms

Childbirth · Ethnography · Fistula · Framing (construction · Narrative · Pregnancy · Sociology · Anthropology · Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Issues · Gender Studies · Global Maternal and Child Health · History · Medicine · Ureteral procedures and complications · Surgery

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