Uterine prolapse in rural Nepal: Gender and human rights implications. A mandate for development

Abstract

This paper describes the contribution of gender beliefs and gender-skewed cultural practices to the high prevalence of uterine prolapse among rural women in Nepal. In conditions of difficult geography, inadequate health services and underdevelopment, the pre-natal period is marked by a heavy workload, a low rate of pre-natal care, and restrictions on a woman's own health decision-making. Delivery is often facilitated by untrained assistants using push and pull methods that may cause pelvic damage. The recovery period after delivery is defined by ethnic prescriptions and household needs that disregard the woman's physical readiness to resume work. The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the most central and comprehensive of the United Nations documents for the advancement of women, mandates that cultural beliefs and practices that are injurious to women must be modified. Reproductive health interventions can legitimately challenge the social causation of uterine prolapse as part of a broad prevention strategy.