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Childbirth Should Not Make Poor Women Outcasts
A story today on TheRoot.com about the devastating effects of fistula in the developing world carried this headline: "What $300 Can Do." The dollar figure referred to the cost of repairing the physical damage that occurs to some women who experience long labor and difficult childbirths that leaves them incontinent. These women are often young, and the pregnancies are usually their first. They almost always give birth to stillborn babies and become pariahs in their communities because they lack bladder and bowel control. The $300 cost for the surgical procedure that repairs these emotionally and physically scarred women is often out of their financial reach but not out of the reach of American women. Imagine the message it would send if American women who can do without the paltry $300 economic stimulus checks they will be getting in the mail from the IRS were to donate the money to organizations helping these women. More important, imagine the impact. I say the heck with the economic stimulus plan. Most economists don't believe it will yield major results anyway. How about a sisterhood fistula eradication plan?
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