The desire to be a mother of women with HIV

At the age of over 40, Ms. Nguyen Thi H., once again became a mother and was happier when her baby boy was born safely, even though she had been infected with HIV for nearly 20 years. The birth of her child also became a bond between her and her second husband, giving her more will to live.
Before that, she had a happy family. But then, misfortune struck when she gave birth to her first daughter and then received the bad news that she and her daughter were infected with HIV from her husband. After her husband passed away, there was a time when she and her daughter had a very difficult time because they were always worried about being shunned by everyone. However, for the sake of her child, she tried to rise up and even became an active peer educator to help people with HIV in Vinh city.

Here she also met her current husband and began to continue writing her dream of having a complete family with children. Sharing about her journey to giving birth to a healthy child, she said: For many years now, I have been taking ARV regularly and my health is completely normal. Therefore, when they knew I wanted to have a child, the staff at the HIV/AIDS Prevention Center supported and guided me throughout the process before, during and after giving birth. Now the child is almost 1 year old, tested many times and all the indicators are negative.

Ms. H’s story has also become a motivation for many mothers with HIV/AIDS in the province. Ms. H herself, as a peer educator, helping at a clinic for HIV-infected patients, after successfully giving birth, shared her experience with many other women who dream of becoming mothers.

At the Obstetrics Department - Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital, we also met a father in Thanh Chuong district who shared his joy because his newborn child was safe after measuring the virus level and the result was negative. This is also the first case of a newborn in Nghe An switching ARV treatment from tablets to syrup and initially bringing equivalent results. This father also said: Because the family lives far away, during the pregnancy, his wife mainly received ARV treatment at the district hospital. However, thanks to the advice from doctors and nurses on monitoring, caring for the fetus, and nutrition, the couple was quite assured and overcame the 9 months of pregnancy and gave birth safely.

Counseling and health check-up for HIV/AIDS patients. Illustration photo

2018 is the 11th year that the program to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission has been implemented in Nghe An and has brought about very positive results. For example, at Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital - one of the first units to implement the program, all 270 pregnant mothers infected with HIV were treated, 270 cases were successful. According to Dr. Nguyen Thanh Hung - Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital, currently, HIV-infected women still have the opportunity to give birth safely by using ARV drugs.

“HIV/AIDS patients are infected with the HIV virus, which destroys their immune system, creating opportunities for other infections. If patients receive regular ARV treatment, it will help suppress the virus and when it is reduced to a normal level, the chance of a safe pregnancy is very high,” said Dr. Hung.

According to Dr. Hung, currently, the right to treatment to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child is increasingly expanded. In particular, according to Decision No. 5418 dated December 11, 2017 of the Ministry of Health on the promulgation of Guidelines for HIV/AIDS treatment and care, all pregnant women with HIV are prescribed treatment to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child as soon as possible. In addition, the Law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control has a separate article regulating the prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child and HIV-infected women are given favorable conditions to access free, high-quality preventive services, especially antiretroviral drugs (ARV).

Health check-up for pediatric patients at the clinic for people with HIV/AIDS, Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital. Photo: Song Hoang

With these benefits, if pregnant women know they are infected with HIV or women infected with HIV who want to get pregnant and give birth, they need to be counseled and need to strictly follow the prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child. In Nghe An, since the program to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child was implemented, all obstetric facilities at the provincial and district levels have provided a comprehensive service package to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child.

Doctor Trinh Hung Tien - Deputy Director of the HIV/AIDS Prevention Center said: If women with HIV take ARV regularly and receive proper care according to the 3-stage regimen, before pregnancy, during labor and preventing HIV/AIDS transmission from mother to child after birth, the success rate will reach 98%.

Despite its advantages, the work of preventing HIV transmission from mother to child still has many difficulties, especially in screening and detecting HIV-infected mothers. At the clinic for HIV-infected children at Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital, we encountered many children with HIV because their mothers had not previously detected the disease. Ms. Tran Thi L (Le Loi ward, Vinh city) said: “I gave birth to my first child who was healthy and developed normally. When I gave birth to my second child, the pregnancy was stable so I was not too worried. But when my child was 1 year old, he got sick, had to be hospitalized and tested, then I found out he was infected with HIV from his father... Currently, Ms. L's husband has passed away, her son is in 3rd grade and the family still has to hide it from everyone. As for L, every few months, her mother takes him to Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital to get medicine and check his health.”
Regarding this issue, Dr. Trinh Hung Tien also expressed concern because despite propaganda and mobilization, the number of HIV-infected women giving birth unsafely is still quite high for the following reasons: Currently, in rural and mountainous areas, most people still give birth at health stations. Meanwhile, the medical equipment here is not enough to conduct preventive tests for HIV/AIDS patients...

According to statistics from the Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control (Ministry of Health), in 2017, out of more than 2.7 million pregnant women nationwide, only nearly 1.4 million pregnant women were tested for HIV, accounting for 50.2%. However, the rate of HIV infection detection among these pregnant women tested was quite high at 1,108 people.

In Nghe An, according to statistics from Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital, if both mother and child are treated, the success rate is 100%. On the contrary, if both are not treated, the failure rate is absolute. Meanwhile, most mothers do not understand HIV and do not know their HIV status, so they pass it on to their children.
The above reality also raises many issues in the current work of preventing HIV transmission from mother to child. And, to be successful, in addition to propaganda and mobilization work, there are also many solutions from the health sector and other departments and sectors to effectively control the HIV infection situation.