Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

“Maternal Mortality—One Woman a Minute,” the first part of Chapter 6, outlines how fistulas are common in the Global South, largely because of pregnancy complications. One case study is Mahabouba Muhammad, who became pregnant from rape at a young age. Kristof and WuDunn note that Mahabouba couldn’t afford a midwife, so she tried to have the baby without any support. Because she was so young, her pelvis had not grown to accommodate a baby’s head, resulting in obstructed labor. They recount her experience:

After seven days, Mahabouba fell unconscious, and at that point someone summoned a birth attendant. By then the baby had been wedged there for so long that the tissues between the baby’s head and Mahabouba’s pelvis had lost circulation and rotted away. When Mahabouba recovered consciousness, she found that the baby was dead and that she had no control over her bladder or bowels. She also couldn’t walk or even stand, a consequence of nerve damage that is a frequent by-product of fistula (94).

Villagers believed that Mahabouba was cursed and tried to have her eaten by wild animals. Deeply desiring to live, Mahabouba crawled to a Western missionary in a nearby town. The missionary saved her life and then took her to Addis Adaba Fistula Hospital, led by gynecologist