2015 AMA National Conference - President's Award

A doctor who has devoted her life to treating and helping to prevent obstetric fistulas among impoverished women in Ethiopia has been awarded the AMA President’s Award.

Dr Catherine Hamlin, together with her husband, Dr Reg Hamlin, co-founded the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, which provides free surgery to women who have suffered obstetric fistulas and other injuries during childbirth.

Now in her nineties, Dr Hamlin continues to work at the hospital and has made an immeasurable impact on the health and well-being of women in Ethiopia, from the prevention and treatment of obstetric fistulas to training midwives in a very poor, underserved area of the world.

During a ceremony at the AMA National Conference today, AMA President A/Prof Brian Owler presented Dr Hamlin with the Award in recognition of her dedication and life-changing work.

“Dr Catherine Hamlin is a most fitting recipient of the President’s Award through her promotion of the well-being of her patients and her lifelong contribution to the resolution of major social and community health issues in the community which she serves,” A/Prof Owler said.

Catherine married Reg Hamlin in 1950 and nine years later they won a contract from the Ethiopian Government to set up a midwifery school in Addis Abbaba.

While there, the Hamlins were confronted with the plight of women who had suffered obstetric fistulas – a hole between the birth canal and the bladder or rectum that typically causes incontinence and can lead to severe infections. The condition, which is rarely found in the developed world, affects up to around 100,000 women each year.

Obstetric fistulas have both physical and social implications for women in Ethiopia. The women leak constantly and are often shunned by their communities, who view them as unclean and consider their affliction a curse or punishment.

When the midwifery school shut down after having trained only 10 midwives, the Hamlins built the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital to serve the needs of local women. When the hospital first opened, the Hamlins funded most of the treatments through their own salaries, and Catherine sewed the clothes and sheets used in the hospital.

The Hamlins not only faced economic challenges but continued their work despite years of political and civil unrest, drought and famine in Ethiopia. Together, the Hamlins became pioneers in the modern technique of obstetric fistula surgery, treating more than 40,000 women with a 92 per cent success rate.

Reg Hamlin died in 1993. Catherine, with the love and support of those she worked with, chose to stay on and continue to serve the local women. 

Today, the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital and its five regional hospitals treat obstetric fistula patients free of charge (largely from donations).

In 1983 Dr Catherine Hamlin received a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to gynecology in developing countries and was then promoted to the grade of Companion of the Order of Australia in 1995. 

She was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2001 was awarded the Centenary Medal for “long and outstanding service to international development in Africa”, and has been declared one of Australia’s National Living Treasures.

Dr Hamlin’s autobiography, The Hospital by the River: A Story of Hope, was published in 2004.

30 May 2015

CONTACT:        John Flannery                     02 6270 5477 / 0419 494 761

                            Odette Visser                      02 6270 5464 / 0427 209 753

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