Women’s and Children’s Health Update: Repairing fistulas in Africa

Andrew Browning is an Australian trained obstetrician who has spent his entire professional career volunteering in Africa as a medical missionary specializing in obstetric fistula surgery. He has been involved in the care of over 12,000 fistula patients across Africa and SE Asia and is considered a world expert in his field. He was involved in establishing charities in Ethiopia and Tanzania to build and run free maternity hospitals for the poor, to prevent fistula and to train midwives in clinical skills. These charities and hospitals have overseen the safe delivery of over 100,000 women to date and trained nearly 1000 midwives in clinical skills. He co-founded the Barbara May Foundation in Australia to fund those hospitals. He has been integral to starting fistula services in several countries around Africa and SE Asia has developed new surgical techniques that are now standard practice across the globe. He oversees the FIGO (International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) global fistula surgery training program as the past-chair of the FIGO Fistula and Genital Trauma Committee and chair of the FIGO Expert Advisory Group on Obstetric Fistula. He advises the UN and WHO on fistula and related issues and he is a frequent keynote speaker at international medical conferences. He over 60 scientific publications, books and chapters and co-wrote the main fistula textbook with Brian Hancock which is distributed to all FIGO fistula trainees. He was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to international maternal health.