Recently, the two of us came across a Ted talk by Gwyneth Martin called “ The power of Female Education”. She was talking about the consequences of a difficult childbirth at a young age. She focused mainly on the fistula formation, which has subsequent health and social impacts on the woman.
She mainly based her thoughts off of her experience from rural Africa but it’s important to recognize that we realize that this practice happens in other parts of the world as well. In rural areas and several inner-city urban pockets, it is not uncommon to see that as soon as the girl starts her periods, she is considered to be of a marriageable age. As a result, girls are married off at very young ages when they might not even have enough knowledge about their own bodies let alone reproduction.
Normally, these complications in women’s bodies during childbirth are correlated with a lack of access to education and healthcare. Most of their knowledge is probably what has been passed down by the older women in their families through word of mouth and thus may be rife with misinformation.
Thus, if the girl gets pregnant at a very young age, she might not be able to take care of herself or the baby throughout her pregnancy. Even though pregnancy and child bearing is a natural phenomena, some care has to be given to an extent at every stage like regular prenatal care and attention to nutrition. Additionally, ideally throughout the pregnancy, it is better to have a care provider like a doctor or a mid-level practitioner, so that they can monitor the woman and the baby and identify and prepare for childbirth under the best circumstances. Otherwise, there could be significant complications during childbirth.
Going into an example, two things that a woman can experience is a prolapse of the organs or a fistula. A prolapse is when the pelvic organs don’t go back to their anatomical positions after childbirth due to the stretching of tissues and ligaments past their normal capacity during childbirth. The bladder or parts of vagina/cervix or rectum may slip to various degrees through the vaginal orifice (birthing canal). This causes significant discomfort to the woman, infections, and psychological distress and may need medical treatment and /or surgery.
Then a fistula, is what was discussed in the Ted talk. It’s a much bigger and worse complication where there is an abnormal connection between the body parts. In childbirth, it can happen if the tissue of the bladder and rectum breaks down due to the pressure of the baby on those organs during a difficult childbirth. Eventually the woman starts leaking urine and feces through the vagina.
As you can imagine, this will cause significant physical, social and psychological problems. And for no fault of her own, she still risks being rejected by the husband, family members and may be ostracized by the society and asked to live away from the general population.
So we think that the answer to preventing such things from happening is by educating girl. If a girl receives education before menstruating, she probably won’t be married or have a child at a young age. This is because she might be in a better position to understand the process of childbearing, taking care of herself throughout the pregnancy, seeking prenatal care and planning the child more appropriately.
She also might be able to recognize the complications, if they happen and seek help in a timely fashion. Also, having a decent amount of education allows her to earn a living to contribute to the finances of the family. And then if the breadwinner of the family has a misfortune like disability or death, she can take their spot to earn a living to support herself and the rest of her family.
Thus we feel that educating a young girl is very significant and is likely to eliminate several other problems that she might face in the future. It’s good for her, her family, society and the world in general.
For inspiring this post we would like to give Credit to : TED Talk -” The power of Female Education” by Gwyneth Martin.
Sources
- https://www.ted.com/talks/gwyneth_martin_the_power_of_a_female_education