Dr Catherine Hamlin AC MBBS '46 MD (Honoris Causa) '05

Dr Catherine Hamlin has devoted almost 50 years of her professional life to relieving the pain and misery of many thousands of young Ethiopian women suffering from obstetric fistulae.

An obstetric fistula is a hole between the bladder and the uterus caused by prolonged obstructed labour, and the victims, many of whom are in their early teens, not only suffer from the long and agonising labour that results in stillbirth, but because of their incontinence, are totally rejected by their husbands and community.

Most obstetric fistulae can be cured by surgery. Dr Catherine Hamlin and her late husband Dr Reg Hamlin OBE started treating patients soon after moving to Ethiopia in 1959. In 1975 they built and opened a dedicated fistula hospital in Addis Ababa. It has since become a major teaching institution, training graduate doctors in obstetrics/gynaecology from the Addis Ababa University and surgeons from across the developing world in fistula surgery techniques. It performs up to 1,400 operations a year and takes outreach programs into country areas.

"Our hope is that one day every woman will be able to have a safe delivery and a live birth," said Dr Hamlin, 82, who is continuing the work she and her husband started in Ethiopia.


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