Shershah Syed

Shershah Syed (born 1953) is a Pakistani physician and surgeon known for his work in obstetrics and maternal health. After his MBBS at Dow Medical College he trained in the United Kingdom and Ireland as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, earned the MRCOG, and returned to Pakistan to work for the Government of Sindh and as an assistant professor at Dow Medical College. He later worked at Sobhraj Maternity Hospital and the Qatar Hospital in Orangi Town, Karachi. Moved by the number of women dying of avoidable pregnancy complications and by obstetric fistula, he turned from infertility care to preventing maternal death, working with UNICEF and UNFPA, helping to set up new schools of midwifery, and leading a group that translated midwifery and nursing textbooks into Urdu and Sindhi. He is a former president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Pakistan, serving from 2007 to 2010, and is president of the International Society of Fistula Surgeons and of the Pakistan National Forum on Women's Health. He also provided emergency medical assistance after the 2010 Pakistan floods and has written books, columns and a radio programme on health and education.