No Woman Left Behind
Kate Grant
She Writes Press (2025)
ISBN: 978-1647428976
Reviewed by Tammy Ruggles for Reader Views (2025)
No Woman Left Behind: A Journey of Hope to Heal Every Woman Injured in Childbirth by Kate Grant is the poignant and important telling of the author’s personal and professional journey she took to make childbirth-related fistula less deadly for women around the world, but especially in Asia and Africa.
There’s no sugar-coating it. Fistula is a medical condition that can occur during childbirth, where tears happen inside the body that cause continuous urine and feces leakage. It’s such a heartbreaking, devastating condition that some marriages and relationships are ruined, women are rejected or ostracized, fall into clinical depression–or worse, they and possibly their newborns face death from lack of medical care and corrective surgery. This rarely happens in countries like the United States and other medically equipped countries.
In her book, Grant goes into intriguing detail about how her life transitioned from a 1980’s Me-Generation advertising professional to a humanitarian and crusader for better health for women around the world. It sounds like an impossible undertaking, trying to save the lives of millions of women who are at-risk or have already suffered from fistula, but this autobiography describes each step she took that led to the formation of The Fistula Foundation, which provides real help to these women in need: surgery. Surgery is the best solution to the problem.
The author’s account is gripping and heartfelt, and Grant relays her story and the stories of women in maternity crisis with the descriptive, energetic, and compassionate prose you would find in an exceptionally well-conceived novel. But it is full of medical information and even topics and questions at the end for discussion, making this the perfect addition to a book club or classroom. As you read, you feel her shift from an advertiser seeking meaning from her work and life, to a woman who found her purpose through helping those who can’t help themselves. This is the kind of story that deserves a wider audience and would make an excellent documentary or film.
This book is replete with personal anecdotes. Some will have you smiling, like the dedicated doctors she met while visiting countries most affected by fistula (over 30 of them!). And some will have you in tears, like the women themselves who were in need of these life-saving surgeries. Grant’s story shows how one person can truly make a difference and save lives.
If you need inspiration to make a bold move in life or want to reach out and help those in need, let No Woman Left Behind: A Journey of Hope to Heal Every Woman Injured in Childbirth” by Kate Grant be your guiding light.