The Hospital By the River

Have you:

Read this book?

Seen the Oprah episode?

Ever heard of an obstetric fistula?

If not, you NEED to.

This book is troubling, heart-wrenching, inspiring and important.

It tells the story of Reg and Catherine Hamlin, Austrailian obstetricians who have spent their lives in Ethiopia treating fistula patients. Catherine authored the book. She rocks.

Ever since I started Hospital By the River last week, I've been really, well, bothered by the whole thing. What we take for granted in Western society, and what childbirth is like for impoverished women in third-world countries with no access to medical care. It's awful. Really, really awful.

Not sure what else to say, just that the book is really impactful and makes me want to go back to Ethiopia. Some of it is hard to read--it's pretty descriptive--but I think I NEED to read it. I have no frame of reference for the horrors of week-long obstructed labors and the painful, humiliating injuries that result. And then being shunned by your husband. Banished from your village. Left to die. All because your body is a little bit broken.

As a woman, I am so, so glad for this book. It's been really eye-opening and if these stories aren't told, most of us won't know what it means to give birth in a developing nation, or how fortunate we are to have excellent doctors and medical facilities at our fingertips. And then we also need to spend more time peering into the lives of people like the Hamlins. Sadly our society focuses almost exclusively on pop culture when we COULD be reading about people who have literally given their lives away for the sake of others. People who make US want to give OUR lives away. (Doubtful you'd find Catherine Hamlin on the cover of "Us" or "People.")

So give it a read. I think you'll be glad, and bothered, that you did.