Natalie Imbruglia calls on United Nations to support the campaign to ‘End Fistula’

In attendance were over 400 ministers of health, ministers of foreign affairs and ambassadors who were confronted with the grim facts that every minute a woman dies needlessly in pregnancy or childbirth, and for every woman who dies, 20-30 women suffer a serious birth injury, of which one of the more devastating is obstetric fistula.

ECOSOC this year focused on Global Public Health. Also speaking on behalf of the campaign was Sarah Omega Kidangasi, a Kenyan woman who has personally experienced living with fistula.

“Night and day for 12 years my life was continually put on the verge. With uncontrolled leaking of urine, foul smell, stigma, isolation, pain and rejection, it was like dying every day,” says 33-year-old Sarah, who developed fistula after a prolonged obstructed labour that left her baby dead.

Today, two years after successful treatment, she is a strong maternal health advocate in local communities and at international meetings.

It is estimated that more than two million women are living with fistula in developing countries; an additional 50,000 to 100,000 new cases occur each year. Every year, more than half a million women die in childbirth.

To find out why Natalie is pushing the world to put End Fistula at the top of the health agenda, click here

Read Natalie's speech in full, click here.

For more on fistula, visit www.endfistula.org.