{"product_id":"fistula-politics-birthing-injuries-and-the-quest-for-continence-in-niger-9781978800373","title":"Fistula Politics: Birthing Injuries and the Quest","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eObstetric fistula is a birthing injury caused by prolonged obstructed labor that results in urinary and fecal incontinence. It is nearly non-existent in the Global North. In contrast Niger, in West Africa, has one of the highest rates of fistula in the world. In Western humanitarian and media narratives, fistula is presented as deeply stigmatizing, resulting in divorce, abandonment by kin, exile from communities, depression and suicide. In \u003ci\u003eFistula Politics\u003c\/i\u003e, Alison Heller illustrates the inaccuracy of these popular narratives and shows how they serve the interests not of the women so affected, but of humanitarian organizations, the media, and local clinics.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Alison Heller has transformed the discourse on fistula with her brilliantly detailed ethnography of the lives of affected women in Niger. \u003ci\u003eFistula Politics\u003c\/i\u003e is an inspiring account of the real lives of determined women facing the hardships of birthing injuries: pregnancy losses and social suffering, persistent wetness and months-long waiting for treatment in the context of 'regional poverty' and mismanaged care. Transformed my understanding! Truly brilliant!\" -- Ellen Gruenbaum * author of The Female Circumcision Controversy: An Anthropological Perspective *\u003cbr\u003e“Most of us know the 'fistula narrative,' a story of innocent girls who suffer the dreadful consequences of early childbearing and can be saved through a simple biomedical intervention. Ali Heller’s evocative and meticulously empirical book reveals the complexities that this sensational narrative fails to capture. The alternative accounts told here raise vital questions about fistula’s true causes, consequences, cures, and costs—and about the marketing of humanitarian biomedicine.” -- Claire L. Wendland * author of A Heart for the Work: Journeys through an African Medical School *\u003cbr\u003e\"Chronicle of Higher Education new scholarly books weekly book list,\" by Nina C. Ayoub * Chronicle of Higher Education *\u003cbr\u003e\" A recommended read for scholars and practitioners in global public health, international development and medical anthropology.\" * Anthrodendum *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eFistula Politics\u003c\/i\u003e is a highly readable, teachable, and beautifully illustrated monograph that is grounded in careful empirical observation. The book is elegantly organized and could be taught in undergraduate and graduate courses in medical anthropology or sociology, global health, human reproduction, gender studies, human rights, or research methods.\" * Medical Anthropology Quarterly *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eFistula Politics\u003c\/i\u003e is a richly-documented ethnography of Nigerian women's reproductive lives...Compellingly illustrates the value of anthropology as it provides us with an ethnographically-based, yet comprehensive and holistic, insight into people's lived experiences.\"  * Anthropos *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eFistula Politics\u003c\/i\u003e is written in clear, accessible language. I expect it will be widely read not only by medical anthropologists and gender and sexuality studies specialists but also by the very actors who intervene in preventing and repairing fistula.\" * Africa *\u003cbr\u003e\"Heller’s ethnography, \u003ci\u003eFistula Politics\u003c\/i\u003e, is a welcome addition to ethnographic studies of fistula, biomedicine, and the body.\" -- Chau J. Kelly * H-Net *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eContents\u003cbr\u003e Note on Terminology\u003cbr\u003e List of Abbreviations\u003cbr\u003e Foreword\u003cbr\u003e 1          Chapter 1: Incontinence and Inequalities  \u003cbr\u003e 44                    Part I   Living Incontinence\u003cbr\u003e 45        Laraba’s Story\u003cbr\u003e 53        Chapter 2: Fistula Stigma\u003cbr\u003e 96        Chapter 3: Liminal Wives\u003cbr\u003e 143                  Part II  Clinical Encounters\u003cbr\u003e 144      Six Beds, Sixty Minutes\u003cbr\u003e 153      Chapter 4: The “Worst Place to be a Mother”\u003cbr\u003e 193      Chapter 5: The Indeterminable Wait\u003cbr\u003e 234                  Part III            The Marketplace of Victimhood\u003cbr\u003e 235      Arantut’s Story\u003cbr\u003e 241      Chapter 6: Superlative Sufferers\u003cbr\u003e 271      Chapter 7: Costs and Consequences\u003cbr\u003e 299      Chapter 8: The Threshold of Continence\u003cbr\u003e Appendix\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Notes  \u003cbr\u003e Bibliography                                                                                           \u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e  ","brand":"Rutgers University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49415225442647,"sku":"9781978800373","price":107.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781978800373.jpg?v=1730526326","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/fistula-politics-birthing-injuries-and-the-quest-for-continence-in-niger-9781978800373","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}