Dr. Alice Benjamin has been a fixture in McGill University’s hospital system for more than five decades. The associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology has guided thousands of births, built a reputation as a pioneer in high-risk pregnancies and earned both the Order of Canada and the Ordre national du Québec.
This fall, as she celebrates her 80th birthday and retires from clinical practice, a fund established in her honour is launching a new push for funding.
The Dr. Alice Benjamin Global Maternal and Child Health Fund helps McGill students and doctors work alongside partners in low-resource communities to improve care for mothers and newborns.
Urgent need for aid
Dr. Madhukar Pai, whose daughter was delivered by Benjamin and who serves on the fund’s committee, said the need for such programs is urgent.
“The world has slipped back quite a bit,” said Pai, inaugural Chair of McGill’s Department of Global and Public Health.
He points to declines in childhood vaccination, rising vaccine hesitancy and the resurgence of measles, whooping cough and polio: “One maternal death occurs almost every two minutes. And 90 per cent of them still occur in low- and middle-income countries.”
The fund is embarking on its next phase during what Pai calls “a trying time for global maternal and child health,” with added urgency after the COVID-19 pandemic and cuts to international aid programs such as USAID.
Milestone in gynecological care
The fund also supports gynecological care more broadly. In January, Dr. Andrew Zakhari, assistant professor in McGill’s Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Dr. Rea Konci, a resident physician and fund recipient, travelled to Rwanda. While working in collaboration with the team in Rwanda, they performed the country’s first-ever laparoscopic hysterectomies.
Using equipment provided by the fund, they demonstrated the procedure twice before Rwandan colleagues performed the third on their own.
“It’s not about dropping in and doing surgery and disappearing,” Zakhari said. “It’s really about training people on the ground to carry the work forward.”
A ‘unicorn’ in the medical field
For McGill alumnus and fund committee member Lorne Lieberman, whose three youngest children were delivered by Benjamin, the fund is a way of paying tribute to an extraordinary physician.
“Doctor Benjamin is a bit of a unicorn in the medical field,” he said. “Very rarely do we meet professionals who are as humble as she is, who are as caring and sensitive and attentive to their patients’ needs.”
Among her memorable cases, he added, was the delivery of twins born seven weeks apart, at 23 and 30 weeks, who are now both succeeding professionally.
Global and local impact
Since its launch in 2018, the fund has raised more than $500,000 and distributed $45,000 through 14 awards to McGill residents, students and trainees. Its projects span five countries, from ultrasound programs in Ethiopia to newborn screening in Cuba and maternal health initiatives in South Africa.
Closer to home, students have trained at La Maison Bleue, a Montreal non-profit that supports vulnerable families.
To learn more or to contribute, visit McGill Crowdfunding.