Australian pop star Natalie Imbruglia has lent her support to an awareness campaign for childbirth disease obstetric fistula.

The TORN hitmaker has joined forces with the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) to bring attention to the millions of women who lose their babies and health to the condition in developing countries.

Fistula causes severe tissue damage during extended childbirth, often resulting in infant mortality and embarrassing incontinence in the mother.

Imbruglia, who has visited Africa on several occasions, says, "It just should not be happening, that women cannot safely have a child in this day and age. 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.

"They need a voice. 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."