This project is dedicated to my late and beloved husband, Gilbert L. Kujovich,
the most brilliant, thoughtful and loving man I have ever known.
Protect Your Sister Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping women. We believe in protecting our sisters, mothers, daughters and wives by improving their health, education and empowerment. Our goal is to increase the understanding of the causes and treatment of obstructed labor and obstetric fistula.We partner globally with the best organizations to eradicate obstetric fistula. We also strive to increase awareness in the United States about this problem and seek support to end this needless tragedy.
WHAT IS OBSTETRIC FISTULA?
This is a confusing 2-dimensional picture to explain a 3-dimensional problem.
This is our 3-dimensional model that explains what causes obstructed labor and leads to obstetric fistula.
The above image is often confusing and difficult to understand- for anyone, but especially for rural villagers in Africa.
They may have little education and likely have little or no understanding of anatomy. Yet, this is the image that is too often used to show obstructed labor.
Therefore, we designed simplified educational tools to make this concept easily understood, as well as to build a bridge between the traditional world and the medical world.
In many cultures the cause of obstructed labor is not understood. Because of this lack of understanding, if a woman goes into obstructed labor, it is sometimes considered a divine or supernatural punishment for an imagined wrongdoing (usually the woman is accused of infidelity), or that she has been bewitched. Therefore, the woman may not be taken to a hospital, but rather to a local priest (to confess her sins), or to a traditional birth attendant who may use dangerous, even fatal methods to get her to deliver.
Being in prolonged obstructed can result in multiple severe childbirth injuries. These may include death of the mother and/or the baby, incontinence of her bladder or rectum and other severe neurological conditions. This frequently leads to the woman being divorced, shunned or isolated, and having to endure extreme shame and loneliness. Thus, she is both physically and psychologically destroyed, and all of this could have been prevented with better education and an increased access to health care services.
The Protect Your Sister Project is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of Obstetric Fistula, as well as helping the women who suffer with this condition.
Please scroll through our website to learn about what we are doing around the globe and how you can help make women’s lives better.
This easily shows that the baby’s head is too big to get out of the women’s pelvis.