diff --git a/src/Mesh.hh b/src/Mesh.hh
index 0a9f6a74bb156c8cb8139acfc1ec1b05b499ffd8..30f755e30509bc8440573b070e35f90dbe19599b 100644
--- a/src/Mesh.hh
+++ b/src/Mesh.hh
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ namespace py = pybind11;
 namespace OM = OpenMesh;
 
 
+using ssize_t = Py_ssize_t;
+
 /**
  * Thin wrapper for assign_connectivity.
  *