Florence’s Story: The Long Road to Healing
At 37, Florence was expecting her eighth child in Uganda’s Soroti District. Throughout her pregnancy, she made the long journey to Orungo Health Centre III for antenatal care, waking with the sun and walking eight miles round trip to reach the clinic.
Florence had asked her husband to take her on the family bicycle, but he did not want to be involved. Even the midwives urged her to bring him, at one point warning that they might not assist her unless he accompanied her. Still, Florence continued making the journey because she knew the importance of receiving care during her pregnancy.
Then, in July 2021, labor began while Florence was working in the garden harvesting groundnuts.
She had carefully saved money for hospital expenses, but almost immediately she had to spend half of it on emergency transportation. This pregnancy felt different from the seven that had come before it, and Florence knew she needed help.
“I spent the whole morning, afternoon and night groaning in labour pain. Nurses kept telling me to push and persuading that I would deliver. I realized something was not right.”
By the following day, Florence still had not delivered and was referred to another health facility. But the family no longer had enough money for the ambulance. Her husband rushed home and sold the family cow to pay for the transfer.
When he returned, an ambulance was called and Florence began a four hour journey to the next hospital.
By then, she already knew something was terribly wrong.
When Florence arrived, she was taken immediately into surgery for a cesarean birth. Her baby was stillborn.
Three days later, Florence began leaking urine. The prolonged and complicated labor had left her with obstetric fistula.
She was referred to TERREWODE Women’s Community Hospital in Soroti, but her body was not yet strong enough for another surgery. Florence arrived severely anemic and malnourished, so the medical team first focused on restoring her health.
For three weeks, she received nutritional support before she was ready for fistula repair.
Then came the surgery.
It was successful.
Florence woke up dry.
After the long walks for antenatal care, the hours of labor, the desperate search for transportation, the loss of her baby, and weeks spent rebuilding her strength, Florence had finally reached the treatment she needed.
Her recovery included more than surgery. At TERREWODE, Florence also participated in basic literacy and reproductive health classes designed to help prepare her for returning home and moving forward after treatment.
Her goals stretched beyond recovery. Once she was fully healed, Florence planned to complete small business training through TERREWODE and work toward a dream of starting a business selling silver fish.
Florence’s story shows how many barriers can stand between a woman and safe childbirth care: distance, transportation, cost, delayed referrals, and lack of family support. It also shows why healing from fistula requires more than a single procedure.
For Florence, treatment meant restoring her health. Education helped prepare her to return home. And economic training offered the possibility of building greater independence for the future.
Help Women Reach Care Before It Is Too Late
Florence did everything she could to prepare for a safe birth, but distance, transportation costs, and delays still stood between her and emergency care.
Your support helps locally led partners connect women with specialized fistula treatment, recovery support, education, and opportunities to rebuild after childbirth injury.
