The UK All Party Parliamentary Group on

Population, Development and Reproductive Health

Parliamentary Hearings into Maternal Morbidity.

Submission by the UK Department for International

Development

September 2008

1. Prolonged obstructed labour1 can lead to foetal death, maternal death or the development of
obstetric fistulae.2 Worldwide obstructed labour causes 8% of direct maternal deaths.3
Estimates of the numbers of women living with obstetric fistulae range from 2 million to 3.5
million worldwide and an additional 50,000 to 100,000 new cases occur each year. 4 Although
difficult to treat, good emergency obstetric care prevents fistulae and the other complications of
obstructed labour.
1 Labour lasting more than 24hrs in which an insurmountable barrier prevents the foetus descending
through the pelvis

2 Obstetric fistula is a hole in the birth canal caused by prolonged labour without prompt medical
intervention, usually a Caesarean section. The woman is left with chronic incontinence and, in most
cases, a stillborn baby

3 The World Health Report 2005. Make every mother and child count. World Health Organization,
Geneva, 2005

4 Wall L.Obstetric vesicovaginal fistula as an international public-health problem The Lancet 2006;
368: 1201 1209