Imbruglia in childbirth injury campaign

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A few years ago Natalie Imbruglia had never heard of obstetric fistula. Now the Australian singer-songwriter is on a mission to help prevent a crippling childbirth injury that affects at least two million women.

During two trips to Africa, the entertainer and actress saw first-hand how devastating one of the world's worst pregnancy disabilities can be for women.

After agonising days in labour without medical assistance women in poor countries suffer tissue damage, lose their babies and are left with chronic incontinence. Often they are ostracised by their husband, family and community.

"It just should not be happening, that women cannot safely have a child in this day and age," Imbruglia said in an interview.

"How can you not be compelled to want to draw attention to this issue?"

"If you could help just one of these women, to me, it is literally giving that woman her life back. That is how I think about it," said the 31-year-old who shot to fame in the Australian soap opera Neighbours in the early 1990s.

Imbruglia is working with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) which launched in 2003 the first global campaign to end fistula.

The agency has programs in 35 countries to eradicate a condition caused by long and obstructed labour that opens a hole in the tissue between the womb and the bladder, leaving the sufferer incontinent.

Fistula can be prevented with skilled obstetric care and usually a caesarean section birth. Ninety percent of women can be treated with simple surgery.

Without the surgery, affected women, who tend to be young, poor and illiterate, are isolated and unable to work because of their stench.

In addition to the estimated 2 million women living with fistula, about 50,000-100,000 new cases occur in poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia and the Arab region each year. Child brides are particularly vulnerable to fistula because their bodies are underdeveloped.

The campaign aims to prevent fistula through education and to treat affected women and support them after surgery.

During a two-week UNFPA programme in Nigeria, medical staff from Britain and other countries treated more than 500 women and trained local doctors.

Imbruglia took time out from working on a new album and before starting a film in Australia to launch a fistula awareness and fund-raising campaign in Britain where the condition was eliminated a century ago.

The campaign will appear on television, in newspapers, magazines and on the Underground rail network.

She is among a growing number of celebrities including the rock star, U2's Bono, Bob Geldof and the actress Angelina Jolie who are using their fame to publicise the suffering of the world's poor.

"They need a voice," she said. "Nobody wants to talk about being incontinent. These women are suffering in silence. It is shameful for them - you can see it in their faces."