In this Book
- Fistula Politics: Birthing Injuries and the Quest for Continence in Niger
- Book
- 2018
- Published by: Rutgers University Press
- Series: Medical Anthropology
summary
Obstetric fistula is a birthing injury caused by prolonged obstructed labor that results in urinary and fecal incontinence. It is nearly non-existent in the Global North. In contrast Niger, in West Africa, has one of the highest rates of fistula in the world. In Western humanitarian and media narratives, fistula is presented as deeply stigmatizing, resulting in divorce, abandonment by kin, exile from communities, depression and suicide. In Fistula Politics, Alison Heller illustrates the inaccuracy of these popular narratives and shows how they serve the interests not of the women so affected, but of humanitarian organizations, the media, and local clinics.
Table of Contents
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- Foreword by Lenore Manderson
- pp. ix-xii
- List of Abbreviations
- pp. xiii-xiv
- Note on Terminology
- pp. xv-xviii
- Incontinence and Inequalities
- pp. 1-28
- PART I. Living Incontinence
- Fistula Stigma
- pp. 37-64
- Liminal Wives
- pp. 65-88
- PART II. Clinical Encounters
- Six Beds, Sixty Minutes
- pp. 91-96
- The “Worst Place to Be a Mother"
- pp. 97-120
- The Indeterminable Wait
- pp. 121-144
- PART III. The Marketplace of Victimhood
- Arantut’s Story: The Other Extreme
- pp. 147-152
- Superlative Sufferers
- pp. 153-170
- Costs and Consequences
- pp. 171-188
- The Threshold of Continence
- pp. 189-200
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 209-212
- Bibliography
- pp. 231-246
- About the Author
- pp. 251-252
Additional Information
ISBN
9781978800403
Related ISBN(s)
9781978800366, 9781978800373, 9781978800380, 9781978800397
MARC Record
OCLC
1080550203
Pages
270
Launched on MUSE
2019-01-02
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2019