Abstract:
In 2012, an estimated 9,500 infants in Ethiopia were born with HIV. Mortality for these infants is high, and preventing infection offers the best hope for reducing the childhood death rates. Effective measures exist which can reduce the likelihood of a child acquiring HIV from its mother to less than 2%, and the necessary anti-retroviral medications are free and accessible to Ethiopian women. However, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) efforts in the country have not kept pace with the global reduction in infant infections over the last decade, and the Ethiopian MTCT rate was still 20% in 2012. Although a large number of women are getting tested for HIV during pregnancy, only 41% of eligible women in the country complete PMTCT therapy. The purpose of this exploratory study was to elicit the perspectives of HIV+ mothers on the unique socio-contextual factors which affect them during pregnancy, both positively and negatively, including the beliefs, attitudes, cultural norms and individuals who have influence over their reproductive health decisions.