McMaster professor recognized for making childbirth safer worldwide

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Chamberlain-and-baby.jpg” caption=”Jean Chamberlain holds a Congolese baby”]The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), has honoured McMaster obstetrician Jean Chamberlain with the 2005 Distinguished Community Service Award for Emergency Obstetrical Care.

Chamberlain, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, is the executive director of the international Save the Mothers program operated by Interserve Canada, and has authored a book titled, Where Have All the Mother's Gone?, that contains stories of hope and courage during childbirth among the world's poorest women.

Chamberlain has chosen to use the $5,000 award to support the International Women's and Children's Health organization, and the Save the Mothers master's degree public health leadership program that she is directing in Uganda.

“Mothers dying needlessly is a story in need of more international attention,” says Chamberlain. “It's led me to places I would have never dreamed, and it's led me to try to make a difference. I've found God has given me strength I didn't know I had, and opened roads I didn't know existed.”

There will be a special celebration and presentation of the award at the Annual General Meeting of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada in Vancouver in June 2006.

Chamberlain also recently received a $14,000 travel scholarship from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for her work overseas. In working to make childbirth safer, her travels have taken her to Yemen, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Pakistan.