Coping Strategies Adopted by Survivors and Women Living with Obstetric Fistula in West Pokot County, Kenya

Abstract

This paper uses data collected within the framework of the Ph.D. thesis, Effects of Obstetric-Fistula on Womanhood: The Case of West-Pokot County, Kenya, of Musyoki, K.G., published in 2016 at Kenyatta University. This phenomenological paper used qualitative methods of data collection and was informed by the performative theory by Butler (1988) which posits that an individual becomes a woman or a man through social performance. The study also used Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional model of stress and coping, which emphasizes appraisal to evaluate harm, threat and challenges. The paper explored coping strategies adopted by survivors and women living with obstetric fistula (OF) in West Pokot County, Kenya. To conform to ideals of womanhood, findings indicate that affected women had to adopt and adapt to a number of coping mechanisms. To adjust to their new identities, stigma, social isolation, and marital challenges, the women used self-isolation and withdrawal, immobility, marital separation, sexual abstinence, use of home-made padding, limiting water and liquid-food intake and frequent bathing. Desperate attempts made by the affected women to maintain hygiene and minimize OF effects are remarkable though inadequate and should be augmented by timely treatment (surgery). Thus, communities need to improve their knowledge about the nature and risk of, so that their social interactions are not influenced by stereotypes, prejudices, and unfounded speculations.