Lisa Hui

Pregnancy and childbirth have always struck me as among the most remarkable parts of medicine and human biology. During my medical training, I was drawn to obstetrics because it allowed me to care for women and families at a time of enormous hope, excitement and change.

As a maternal fetal medicine specialist, I now care for families when something unexpected is found during pregnancy. Some of the hardest conversations I have are with women who acquire cytomegalovirus, or CMV, during pregnancy. This common virus usually causes little or no illness in healthy adults, but when acquired for the first time during pregnancy, it can pass to the baby and cause stillbirth, childhood hearing loss, cerebral palsy or other disability.

The question I find hardest to answer is: “Could this have been prevented?” Not because we lack prevention strategies, but because we have not consistently embedded them into pregnancy care. Women are told to avoid soft cheeses and take care around cat litter, yet most have never heard of CMV or how to reduce their risk of infection.

That has made me determined to move CMV from something families discover too late to something we discuss before or early in pregnancy, when prevention is possible.

I am a Professor at the University of Melbourne, a researcher at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and a specialist at the Mercy Hospital for Women and The Northern Hospital. Through my Churchill Fellowship, I will learn from countries further ahead in CMV prevention and treatment, exploring practical approaches that could improve safe, effective and family-centred care in Australia.

My hope is to help build better care for CMV in pregnancy and, ultimately, give more Australian babies and families the chance to thrive.