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Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Correspondent
TATENDA Mafuka (not real name) had just turned 15 when she experienced prolonged, obstructed labor, but could not access emergency medical care to help her deliver her baby safely.
She had a still birth and to add insult to injury, she also developed obstetric fistula, one of the most serious childbirth injuries.
Obstetric fistula is a hole between the birth canal and bladder and/or rectum that is caused by prolonged labour without access to timely medical treatment.
As a result, Tatenda passes foul-smelling discharge while urine and stool leak through her vagina.
The teenager is a victim of child marriage after having been married off to a polygamist twice her age by her parents.
Tatenda is being offered support at a gender-based violence shelter in Mutare, but in a clear case of Stockholm’s syndrome, she cannot wait to go back to her ‘husband’.
Young mothers are at high risk of obstetric fistula as their bodies would not yet have fully developed to carry pregnancy and give birth.
According to Dr Mirriam Kanyenze, a gynaecologist and obstetrician, labour is never easy for young mothers.
“When delivery time comes, a young mother will try to push her baby out but the baby won’t budge as it will be stuck in a hole created inside.
“Hours and even days can pass without delivery. If the mother does not receive medical assistance on time, she risks having a stillbirth while a hole is created between her birth canal and bladder or rectum,”’ said Dr Kanyenze.
She said obstetric fistula is prevalent in Manicaland considering that child marriages are rampant across the province.
Dr Kanyenze highlighted that most of the cases go unreported, thereby denying the young mothers access to medical attention.
“This condition is traumatising as the mothers end up leaking urine and stool. Most patients of obstetric fistula cannot afford adult diapers to hold the leaking human waste. Most resort to the use of cloths.
“The majority of them end up divorced as their husbands rarely offer the necessary support. Some have succumbed to infections of the womb stemming from obstetric fistula, while others end up infertile,” said Dr Kanyenze.
“However, obstetric fistula is curable. These cases are actually treated for free once they are reported and the Ministry of Health and Child Care knows about them,” she said.
In an interview, Ms Lilian Chihwayi of Taguta Village in Marange, whose child also developed obstetric fistula during child birth, said child marriages are prevalent in the area.
“In this area, almost every household has cases of child marriages that have gone unreported. Children suffer from obstetric fistula complications, but we did not know that it could be cured,” she said.
Headman Mafararikwa said local cases of rescued child brides who beg to be reunited with their abusers are on the increase.
“Young mothers’ health complications are common here, and it is really worrying when children run away from home to get married. Once there, they are brainwashed by their abusers and rescuing them becomes a tall order,” he said.
Speaking at recent Gender Forum Community Dialogue in Marange, Zimbabwe Gender Commissioner Tsungirirayi Hungwe-Chimbunde said in 2019, one in three Zimbabwean girls were married off before the age of 18.
“There are many cases going unreported as evidenced by the 14-year-old, Anna Machaya’s case who died while giving birth at an apostolic sect shrine here in Marange. The Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (ZimStat) confirms that levels of child marriages remain unacceptably high in Zimbabwe,” said Commissioner Hungwe-Chimbunde.
She said child marriages expose the child brides and their new born babies to high health and death risks due to physiological and physical immaturity.
“Addressing child marriage is central to the work of the ZGC as it is one of the systematic barriers prejudicial to the achievement of gender equality in Zimbabwe. Child marriage impedes the full enjoyment of child rights and it limits girls from accessing educational and economic opportunities that could lift them and their families from poverty. Rather, child marriages expose girls to various health complications,” she said.
Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Honourable Nokuthula Matsikenyeri said Government is refining mechanisms to curb child marriages.
She said children should not be giving birth at tender ages as it puts them in harm’s way.
Minister Matsikenyeri said as the world commemorates 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, the country remembers Anna Machaya and all the other young brides – surviving or dead – as they endured unbearable experiences at the hands of their abusers.
Online Reporter