{"id":5519,"date":"2023-11-01T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T09:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/?page_id=5519"},"modified":"2024-11-22T12:42:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T12:42:43","slug":"how-is-hiv-transmitted-to-a-baby","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/pregnancy\/how-is-hiv-transmitted-to-a-baby","title":{"rendered":"How is HIV transmitted to a baby?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 4\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p><strong>Transmission is the word for when HIV passes from one person to another. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mother to baby transmission is known as vertical transmission.<\/p>\n<p>This is a better term to use as it refers to the event rather than placing the onus and responsibility of transmission on the mother alone.<\/p>\n<p>Most vertical transmissions happen near the time of or during labour and birth (when the baby is being born). Vertical transmission also includes transmission through breastfeeding.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest risk factor for vertical transmission is the mother\u2019s viral load. This is a measure of how much HIV is in your blood.<\/p>\n<p>The main aim of ART is to get viral load to undetectable. This is the same for everyone with HIV. Viral load tests results are in copies per millilitre (copies\/mL). Undetectable viral load is when this gets to less than 50 copies\/mL.<\/p>\n<p>When we talk about an undetectable viral load in this guide we mean less than 50. If a mother\u2019s viral load is undetectable when her baby is born \u2013 particularly if this has been the case throughout pregnancy \u2013 the risk of vertical transmission is just about zero.<\/p>\n<p>Undetectable viral load is particularly important at the time of birth. Most risk factors for transmission are removed by reducing the amount of HIV in the blood to undetectable.<\/p>\n<p>Practically all risk factors point to one thing: looking after women\u2019s health.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Some key points:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A mother\u2019s health directly relates to the HIV status of the baby.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Having an undetectable viral load on ART is most important.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Transmission is the word for when HIV passes from one person to another. Mother to baby transmission is known as vertical transmission. This is a better term to use as it refers to the event rather than placing the onus &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":16,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-guides.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5519","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5519"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17521,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5519\/revisions\/17521"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}