The Hospital By the River

Dr. Catherine Hamlin 

"When I first met Catherine, straightaway I saw shining through the qualities and attributes which have made her one of the most loved and admired women in the world: warmth, energy, humour, optimism, vivacity, empathy, authenticity." DAME QUENTIN BRYCE

The Hospital by the River has been in print since it was first published in 2001. This new edition continues the story of the remarkable Australian gynaecologist Dr Catherine Hamlin and her medical work that has transformed the lives of 45,000 Ethiopian women.

Catherine travelled to Ethiopia with her husband, Reg Hamlin, in 1959 on a short contract. Now 92, Catherine is at the head of a world-recognised medical program that specialises in the treatment of labour-induced fistulas. Left untreated, fistulas - rare in Western countries - result in severe incontinence, which forces women into a life of degradation and incapacity.

Catherine and her team have established six fistula hospitals, a village to accommodate patients and a midwifery school, and pioneered techniques that are used the world over. They have won the respect of the Ethiopian government, the Nobel Committee (she has twice been nominated for the Peace Prize) and the hearts of donors around the world, including Oprah Winfrey, whose emotional interview with Catherine introduced millions to the life-threatening reality of giving birth in the Third World.

Set against the harsh beauty of the Ethiopian landscape, this is a compelling account of how the determination and compassion of one woman have inspired others to create genuinely long-lasting change, not just in the lives of individual women but across a nation.

- Publisher

About The Author: Dr. Catherine Hamlin graduated in medicine at the University of Sydney in 1946, then met and married Dr Reg Hamlin. Together, with their six-year-old son Richard, they went to Ethiopia in 1959 to work as obstetricians and to start a midwifery school.
They soon found their time and energy drawn increasingly to the plight of obstetric fistula patients. These patients - often girls or very young women - go into obstructed labour at home without access to a skilled birthing attendant. Extended labour results in stillborn children and the tearing of holes between the uterus and the bladder or bowel, often resulting in permanent incontinence. These women become outcasts from their villages and are sometimes rejected by their family. It is estimated that there are up to 9,000 new cases of obstetric fistula each year in Ethiopia alone.

Initially working from the Princess Tsehai Memorial Hospital in Addis Ababa, Reg and Catherine Hamlin operated on 300 fistula patients within the first three years. As news of a cure spread, many more patients came seeking help. Then in 1974, the Hamlins founded the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, specifically to treat women with obstetric fistula. The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital has provided a safe haven where fistula patients are treated free of charge. Dr Reg Hamlin died in August 1993 but Dr Catherine Hamlin's work amongst obstetric fistula sufferers has continued uninterrupted in the five fistula hospitals strategically located in regional Ethiopia. An estimated 35,000 women have been treated since 1959.

Dr Hamlin has been awarded honorary fellowships in the medical associations of Australia, England and the United States. In 1983, she was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to gynaecology in developing countries and in 1995, Hamlin was awarded Australia's highest honour, being promoted to the grade of Companion of the Order of Australia. In 2001, she was awarded the Centenary Medal for 'long and outstanding service to international development in Africa'. She has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1999 and 2014.

- Publisher

Pages: 336

​Publication Date: 26th April 2016