malawiiiiiiii

I am about a week from leaving for Malawi and the usual anxiety is setting in. How to leave for so long and what will be here when I get back...

I am going to Malawi as the internship portion of my Master's program. We will be doing in depth interviews with up to 47 women and their family members who have had obstetric fistulas and have undergone surgery approximately 2 years ago. Obstetric fistula is an obstetric morbidity that results from obstructed or prolonged labor. During the course of prolonged labor, the baby's head lodges into the vaginal canal, causing tissues there to die. When the baby finally decomposes and comes out, many of these tissues come out as well, leaving gaps in the mother's anatomy. This results in women who leak urine and/or feces through their vaginas either through vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF) or recto-vaginal fistula (RVF). These women often smell due to leaking urine and are heavily stigmatized by their families and communities.

I will be in Malawi from July 25th (following a quick stop to Ethiopia) to December 20th and will try to update this blog throughout that time.