Women's Health: The Strength of a Woman

This post is reblogged from "The Floating Hospital", a blog by one of the nurse's on board the good ship Mercy, Nicole.  Someday, I am going to go to a dress ceremony.  I can't wait!

Matakon, Jacqueline and Jose on deck 7 enjoying the sun.
These ladies were our first 3 patients for Women's health in Cameroon. 

In the most northern region of Cameroon, Matakon, a 15 year old girl is in labor. She did not choose to be pregnant this young. Her marriage to a man over 3 times her age was arranged between her father and her husband at the cost of a few cows. Now Matakon struggles to deliver a child, but her tiny body is unable to do so. She is in labor for many agonizing days. The baby dies inside her and she still struggles, until finally she is able to deliver her dead baby. The nightmare however is not over. Matakon goes to sleep without a baby in her arms. When she awakens she is wet. Had she wet herself in her sleep? Matakon soon discovers that she is unable to hold in her urine. During the prolonged obstructed labor she endured a hole formed in her bladder, creating a fistula between her bladder and vaginal wall. Urine now constantly drips down her leg, making her home and herself smell of stale urine. There is nothing Matakon can do to stop leaking, and her husband does not have the money for the expensive medical care she needs so Matakon continues to live as she is. For 8 long years she in unable to control the urine that flows from her.

Matakon during her dress ceremony, 

Christine’s child has also died inside her. At age 19 she has already delivered one healthy baby, but her second pregnancy does not end well. She labors for days with an obstructed labor. She finally receives a C-section, but the medical care she needed arrives too late to save her baby and the damage inside her has already been done. She too has developed an obstetric fistula and leaks urine for the next year.

Christine ready for her dress ceremony 

Jose has never had a problem giving birth. At 53 she has five healthy children. 7 years ago she was in need of medical care and underwent a simple operation. After the operation she discovered she was no longer in control of her urinating. She went back to the surgeon many times, but the surgeon dismissed her concerns. He refused to acknowledge his malpractice. Jose needed a second surgery to repair the damage caused during the first surgery, but she was out of money and did not have the energy to take a doctor to court. Jose started praying for a way to be healed.

Jose during her dress ceremony 

This year in Cameroon I am working with a totally different patient population then what I am used to. This year I am working in our Women’s Health Ward. The majority of the patients we will serve suffer from obstetric fistulas and have similar stories to the 3 shared above. A fistula is nearly always caused by an obstructed labor; however, it can also result from a surgical complication as in Jose’s story. A fistula can occur between the bladder and vagina, the rectum and vagina or both. Women with fistulas will have no control over their bodily functions and the resulting smell that engulfs them many times ostracizes them from their communities. It is not uncommon for them to be abandoned by their husbands and for them to live isolated within a culture where relationship and community is usually valued above most things. Imagine the feelings that many of these ladies must feel: helplessness, hopelessness, shame, loneliness.

 An obstetric fistula is the result of poverty. They are preventable, but in areas of the world where people do not have access to safe, affordable and timely healthcare they happen all too often. Women in the west can also suffer from an obstructed labor; the difference is that a women in the west has access to safe, timely and affordable healthcare. She can get the C-section she needs in time to prevent injury to herself and death to her child.

A fistula is a devastating condition which threatens to steal a woman’s identity and hope. It seeks to make women weak, but in the very short time I have known these women I have found the opposite to be true. These are truly the strongest women I know. Despite their fears and uncertainty, despite the distance they traveled, the doubts expressed by their neighbors, past failed attempts for a cure, the many obstacles which have stood in their way and made life difficult they retained hope within their hearts, they trusted Mercy Ships to help them and they usually did it with a smile still on their face. They have not allowed the difficulties in life to snuff out their joy.

The 3 women above are some of the first who received surgery onboard the Africa Mercy a little over 2 weeks ago. It’s a delicate surgery and not always successful. It takes a couple weeks for them to heal and they stay with us in the hospital during that time. What a joy it is to work on this ward and serve these woman. We laugh, love, sing and sometimes cry.

Singing during the dress ceremony 

On Monday I was able to celebrate the healing of these 3 women and 2 others during the ship’s first dress ceremony of the year. The dress ceremony is a time where the hospital chaplaincy provides each woman with a new, clean dress to symbolize their new start in life. They leave the ward and chaplaincy helps them prepare for the ceremony by fixing their head wraps, make up and jewelry. The time symbolizes the preparation of the church as the bride of Christ. They then enter the room to applause, cheers and song as we rejoice with them for their healing. They share their testimonies, sometimes through tears of joy. The party then continues in the hall and back on the ward with hugs, more songs, tears and laughter.

Christine sharing a more serious part of her beautiful testimony. 

What a joy it is to witness the end of a journey and the start of a new one within these woman’s lives. I am so happy to report on their physical healing, but there are deep wounds these women carry inside them that are not physical. Please pray for our ladies that during their time on the ship they would also find healing for any lingering emotional and spiritual wounds they carry with them. We want the woman coming to the ship to see their value and worthiness the way God sees them and we do this through the love that we show. Our love for our patients has not gone unnoticed. As Jose so eloquently put it during her testimony: “I have never seen love displayed in the way it is on Mercy Ships….. [because of that love] I was healed even before I received surgery”.