Question
My baby is on nevirapine and I’m breastfeeding, is my baby positive?
19 August 2016. Related: All topics, Pregnancy.
Answer
Firstly, congratulations on having your baby.
It is normal for your baby to be given a short course (4 weeks) of HIV treatment (such as nevirapine) when born. This doesn’t mean your baby is HIV positive. This will be checked later through testing. A different type of testing is also used on babies as the normal antibody test used in adults will show the baby as positive.
Our guide on pregnancy has lots more information
https://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy
In the UK, the BHIVA (British HIV Association) guidelines recommend bottle feeding.
This is because in countries where mothers can have access to to formula milk AND clean water AND bottle sterilising equipment, the risk of transmitting HIV to the baby through bottle feeding is zero. There are different recommendations for other countries though and many women breastfeed. I am not sure about the recommendations in Zambia.
This means that you are doing the best that you can to protect your baby.
However, being positive and looking after a new born baby can be hard and many people need help. Do you have much support around you to help or are you touch with good care from your doctor?
Hi Nono, thanks for sharing your news – and congratulations on your new baby. This must be a very eexciting – and exhausting time. The main thing is to remember to look after your health and to remember your own meds each day as these also protect your baby.
HIV meds and an undetectable viral load are the best signs that your baby will be okay, plus the short course of meds for your baby too.
You are doing amazingly well – and the PCR results are really likely to also be negative. Breastfeeding is okay too.
Hi I’m HIV+ and I started taking ARVs on my 8th month of pregnancy however I gave birth natural and my baby is on Adco zidovudine and nvp my viral load is 40 copies still waiting for PCR results I’m overstressing about the results cos I’m breastfeeding also
Hello Lucy and thanks for getting in touch.
The guidelines are different in every country.
Apologies but I don’t know what your guidelines say.
I am sending you the links to the information we give to parents in our clinics in case you find them useful:
https://bhiva.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/BF-Leaflet-1.pdf
https://bhiva.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/BF-Leaflet-2.pdf
In any case, any problems with the baby should be escalated and discussed with a paediatrician who can treat the baby, if that is needed or give you accurate advice
My baby is 10 months old he’s on nevirapine and I’m breastfeeding, recently he got unwell and developed oral thrush and cracks at the corners of the mouth, then thrush as it was clearing there were some small sores… Is it safe to continue breastfeeding or could this has made my baby contract the virus