I live in Kakesa Bugani Village in Mpanda District. I have two children, aged 15 and 12. In 2000 I was pregnant for the third time. I went into labour at around 4pm, and the pain did not stop the whole night. When the baby refused to come out, the traditional birth attendant said she could not help me, and said we should go to the hospital. But we could not go at night, so we had to wait until the following day. I was in a lot of pain and completely exhausted. I couldn’t walk. I was put on a bed and carried by four men all the way to Mpanda. It was a long walk, and by the time we got to the health centre, I was unconscious. My mother was told that my uterus had raptured, and I was taken to the theatre. The baby was dead.
When I woke up, I found myself lying in a pool of liquid. I realised it was urine. The doctor told me that something had gone wrong during labour, and that I could only be treated at Itidi or Mbeya Hospitals. Those hospitals were so far away from my home. I did not know where I would get the money to go there.
I went back to my mother’s home feeling very sad. I had no baby, and on top of that I had this new embarrassing problem. When my husband came to get me, my mother told him about my condition. He told her he was going away to look for money so that I could go to hospital. That was the last I saw of him. Later I heard that he had married another woman. My younger sister built a hut for me and my children in her compound, and that is where we have been living.
Life has been very difficult these seven years. I would spend most of my time sitting on a pile of rags to catch the urine. I always had painful sores on my thighs and buttocks. I could not go to weddings or to church. However, although my husband left me, my friends would still come to see me and I would plait their hair. Then one day last month, a teacher from a nearby school heard that doctors were coming to Sumbawanga Hospital to treat women with problems like mine. I came here four days ago, and yesterday I had my operation. You have no idea how excited I am because when I go back home I will be able to do all the things that I have not been able to do. I not have to sit in the house all the time. I am so grateful because I have been given back my life.
