Rania Abdou

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Senior Resident in Obstetrics and Gynaecology

St George and Sutherland Hospitals

“I feel as though working with women is my purpose in life. Obstetrics and gynaecology is not just a clinical and surgical specialty, but it also provides me with an opportunity to have a much broader involvement in women’s health. That includes being a women’s health advocate; working with migrants and refugees; family planning and contraception; and quality improvement, innovation and clinical governance. I love being involved in all the levels of my work.

I love empowering women with knowledge, listening to their concerns and making sure that everything we do is through a shared decision making process. One example is when I was looking after a woman who developed severe preeclampsia and was transferred to another hospital, then had an emergency caesarean. I didn’t think I did anything out of the ordinary with her, I just looked after her the way I look after everybody else, but about 2 months later I saw her again. She and her husband recognised me, came up to me and said: ‘Doctor Rania, we wanted to come and thank you, look at this gift you gave us.’ They held up this little baby. At that moment, when she said that to me, I thought wow, yes, this is why I do this. It was such a beautiful moment.”