Women and HIV: Questions Answered
August 2007 Issue No. 14	The INFO Project • Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health • Center for Communication Programs • 111 Market Place, Suite 310 • Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA • 410-659-6300 • 410-659-6266 (fax) • www.infoforhealth.org • infoproject@jhuccp.org

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Health of Mother and Infant

If a woman has HIV, does pregnancy make her infection worse?

No. Evidence suggests that pregnancy does not speed up the course of HIV infection. Still, it is best to avoid pregnancy if the woman’s health is poor. If her health is worsening, she should be advised to delay pregnancy until she can get treatment and her health has improved (24, 50, 72, 77, 86).

If a woman with HIV gets pregnant, how can HIV affect her and her baby?

Compared with uninfected women, a woman with HIV is more likely to develop fever after giving birth (puerperal fever). Also, miscarriage is three to six times more likely. Infants born to mothers with HIV are more than twice as likely to be low birth weight and about twice as likely to be born too early, compared with infants of uninfected women. Infants born to mothers with HIV may get HIV from their mothers (see ”Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV”) (7, 12, 15, 23, 47, 74, 75).

If a pregnant woman with HIV also has another infection, what are the effects?

Other illnesses in the presence of HIV infection can complicate pregnancy. Women with both HIV and malaria, when compared with women who have HIV but not malaria, face two to three times more risk of delivering too early, that her fetus will not grow enough during gestation, and that the newborn will die. Women with HIV and tuberculosis also are more likely to have these complications as well as maternal anemia (low iron levels in the blood) and to have babies of low birth weight (47, 67, 89).

Why is good nutrition particularly important for pregnant women with HIV?

Maintaining good nutrition helps reduce the chances of passing HIV to babies and helps reduce poor birth outcomes such as low weight at birth and delivering too early. Women can get good nutrition by eating adequate amounts of appropriate food containing vitamins and minerals and by gaining an adequate amount of weight (2, 26, 36, 84, 94). Pregnant women with HIV have the same needs for calories, protein, vitamins, and minerals as pregnant women without HIV. Health care providers can advise all pregnant women, including those with HIV, to eat at least one extra serving per day, if possible, of the local staple food (an inexpensive food high in energy, such as rice or cornmeal) (1, 65, 71).

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