03 Feb 2014

Just because a woman is HIV positive does not mean that she is forbidden from falling pregnant.

The South East District Health Management Team (DHMT) coordinator, Dr Ally Nanjenu, said this during the team’s meeting recently. Dr Nanjenu was responding to some of the attendees who questioned the decision to fall pregnant with known HIV status or while on ARV treatment.

“It is not a sin for them to get pregnant, what we normally see is that they do without consulting us or doing further investigations on health implications,” he added. He said through bypassing health professional’s advice, mothers do not take into consideration their viral load or immune system’s ability to withstand pregnancy challenges.

Dr Nanjenu said infected mother’s CD4 count often drops during pregnancy, which can be a health hazard if not taken into consideration before getting pregnant. Hence, he said infected mothers need the support of health practitioners to minimise the risks of spreading the virus to the baby either during pregnancy, labor, birth or breastfeeding.

Some of the district health management team meeting attendees were of the view that falling pregnant with known HIV status should be outlawed. They argued that although all women have right to fall pregnant, the decision to fall pregnant whiles HIV positive compromise the health of the baby and the mother. In addition, they said the situation would then need repeated medical attention, which will automatically eat on the already stretched government coffers.

However, Dr Nanjenu pointed that there is nothing stopping an HIV-infected women from falling pregnant. He said the number of women who fell pregnant while HIV positive increased from 89 between July and September to 113 between October and December 2013. However, he added that out of all the babies tested for HIV between October and December, no baby tested positive. ENDS