The Labour of
Giving Birth
China’s transformation into an economic superpower is often framed in terms of production output, technological advancement and infrastructure. What is often missing is another kind of production – that of workers. Dr Gonçalo Santos has been tracing the transformation of birth in China as it moved from the home to the hospital and became increasingly subject to biomedical interventions.
Bringing Hope for Congenital Disorders
Discovering your baby has an incurable inherited disorder can have a lifelong psychological, social and economic impact on families. But new insights into the molecular genetic bases of two such disorders – Hirschsprung disease and dwarfism – hold promise for developing therapies to lessen the impact. Moreover, the findings may have implications for understanding common disorders that affect millions of people globally.
MAKING BABIES
The rapid changes in technology and society over the past 40 years are affecting how and whether couples can conceive. HKU researchers have been studying the impact of social and political transformations in China and Hong Kong, and of non-natural births. They are also producing research to improve the odds of conception and to identify and treat congenital diseases, so more babies have a chance of a healthy life.
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May 2019
Volume 20
No. 2
Cover Story