Concerns and experiences of women participating in a short‐term AZT intervention feasibility study for prevention of HIV transmission from mother‐to‐child

Abstract

This paper describes the experiences and concerns of women participating in a short-term AZT intervention feasibility study to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission at three sites in India. The study used qualitative methods to examine the experiences of 31 women during late pregnancy, delivery and at post-natal visits. It also elicited the perspectives of 19 healthcare providers. Frequent visits required during late-pregnancy and the post-natal period presented concerns for the women in the study. Women's understanding of the long-term implications of participating in the intervention study was poor, and living with uncertainty about the HIV status of the newborn was a major concern. The provision of psychosocial support is essential in future intervention studies and should be incorporated on an ongoing basis. Networking with women-centred support groups may be helpful in enabling women to gain the long-term benefits of this type of intervention.

Hopes, fears, knowledge and misunderstandings: responses of HIV-positive mothers to early knowledge of the status of their baby

“…They support findings that HIV-positive mothers prefer knowing their babies' HIV status early (Mawar et al, 2007;Varga et al, 2005). The relief expressed by mothers of HIVnegative babies tallies with the lower anxiety levels reported for women once they knew their babies' status (Bennetts et al, 1991;Varga et al, 2005).…”

“…In studies (Bennetts et al, 1999;Mawar, Joshi, Sahay, Bagul, & Paranjape, 2007;Varga, Sherman, Maphosa, & Jones, 2005) that have explored HIVpositive mothers' experience when learning the HIV status of their babies, early diagnosis of the baby's HIV status (before two months) and access to ART were apparently not available. This study extends the earlier findings by exploring the experience and concerns of HIV-positive women whose baby's HIV status is diagnosed at 4Á6 weeks, with access to ART.…”

Values and preferences of women living with HIV who are pregnant, postpartum or considering pregnancy on choice of antiretroviral therapy during pregnancy

“…Most included fewer than 50 participants (seven studies). 30–34 36 37 The most common sampling strategy was convenience (eight studies). 29–32 35–37 40 Four studies reported response rates; 50% in one study 37 and 90% or more in three others.…”

Systematic review of public health research on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in India with focus on provision and utilization of cascade of PMTCT services

“…Of the 26 papers on the individual components of the cascade, none were related to access to antenatal care (ANC), 14 were related to HIV counseling and HIV testing [37-50], 6 to provision of ARV to mother and/or baby [51-56], 4 to infant feeding [57-60], and 1 each to obstetric care for HIV-infected women [61] and the diagnosis of HIV among infants [62]. The studies on counseling and HIV testing were divided into two sub-categories.…”

“…The qualitative study by Mawar et al (2007) reported that the availability of an ‘easily accessible’ and ‘low cost’ intervention (AZT), which otherwise would have been prohibitively expensive, is a major factor influencing HIV infected women’s decision to continue their pregnancy. The study also emphasized that health care providers require training in order to focus on women-centered approaches as the program scales up [51]. …”