Question
When will I know if my baby is negative?
3 April 2017. Related: All topics, Children.
I gave birth at home and went to clinic the next day after the birth. I started treatment with a CD4 of 160 when I was 5 months pregnant. What does this mean for my sons status? I’m not breastfeeding and I’m giving him 1.5ml of nevirapine as directed at the clinic. He weighed 2.7kg then 2.9kg after 5days. I want to know what the chances are of him being positive.
Answer
Thanks for getting in touch.
And congratulations on the birth of your son.
When a woman has HIV and is pregnant, what’s important is their viral load, not the CD4 count. Though of course if this is low, this could influence the pregnancy.
Its the viral load that will influence if a baby is infected or not. The lower the viral load, the lesser the risk. When you gave birth do you know what your viral load was?
No one can tell you for sure if your baby is negative or not until they have been tested. For more about testing in babies, please see here:
https://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy/hiv-negative
You are though doing the right thing by giving them medication, and depending on where you live, not breastfeeding.
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