Question
Will my baby have HIV?
15 December 2016. Related: All topics, Children, Newly diagnosed, Pregnancy.
I’m HIV positive and I started taking meds on the second month of my pregnancy. I gave birth not knowing my viral load and my baby is now 6 days old and is taking nevirapine. What are the chances of him getting infected? I am also breast-feeding.
Answer
Thanks for getting in touch, and congratulations on the birth of your baby.
The chances of transmitting HIV to babies is dramatically reduced if a woman’s viral load is undetectable at delivery. In most cases this happens within 1-3 months of starting meds. Sometimes it might take longer if viral load was very high when starting.
Because you started treatment early in your pregnancy, it is very likely that your viral load was undetectable. However, without knowing your results, I cannot be sure of this.
When you gave birth did you have a vaginal delivery? If you did, was this supported by your doctor? If it was, then this may be an indication that your VL was undetectable.
You being on treatment is important as this will also protect the baby while you are breastfeeding.
It is also good that your baby is taking meds as this will give extra protection.
This means there is a really good chance your baby will not have HIV.
The meds for the baby will help this and then testing is the only way to finally find out. Unfortunately, it takes a while for the testing to show this.
For more on infants and testing, please see the following:
https://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy/hiv-negative
Hi Nokwanda,
First many congratulations on the news of your new baby girl.
It’s great that your viral load is lower than detectable. And changing to only formula feeding is fine. But it’s not recommended to mix both breastfeeding and formula feeding. But it sounds like you’re doing all you can.
Please talk to the doctor or nurses about your baby’s weight. They can give you the best advice on feeding her and helping her to gain weight. You can also chase up the PCR result with the clinic.
Hi I’m HIV-p and have a 11 weeks baby my first I didn’t know much about labour so I had her at home my viral load is LTD my baby 1st pcr never come back I breastfeed her for a month then changed to formula what scares me is that my baby is so skinny at birth she waighted 2.09 and at 10 weeks is 4.1
Hi Mbali,
First, many congratulations on the birth of your new baby boy.
It’s good that you started HIV treatment (ART) in October. Modern ART gets to work very quickly. Viral load can drop by 90% within the first few days, and by 99% within the first few weeks of starting ART.
The aim of ART is to get your viral load result to less than 50 copies before your baby is due.
All babies born to HIV positive mothers are given a course of ART for a few weeks. It’s good that your son is taking nevirapine.
So it sounds like you’re doing all you can. Do you have access to your viral load and CD4 results? Please let us know what they are. And also please tell us what HIV meds you are taking.
Hi
I started taking my treatment 30 October 2018 got pregnant June 2019 and delivered by baby on 29 January 2020, premature baby… He was given NVP to take for six weeks, so I need to know if my baby is at risk of getting the virus.
Hi Cindy,
As long as your viral load is undetectable the chances of your baby being positive are minimal. However, please take your baby to clinic, if possible the clinic where she was born. They will be able to do the correct test (you can’t use a home testing kit on a child).
Hi. I tested hiv positive when i was 20 weeks pregnant and i started taking treatment immediately and delivered my baby on Csection ,my baby was tested and the first test was negative but i was given the syrup for 6 weeks ..i then went back home in Zimbabwe as my mother passed away ..i went to the local clinic in rural areas they took the blood and told me the results will be out in a week and the nurse told me to stop the syrup that i was giving my baby …i waited and they kept on telling me that the results are not yet back ..i waited for a month and i had to come back to SA and i immediately bought a home made test kit at clicks to test my baby ,,the results were positive ..I’m confused is my baby really hiv positive or what ..im now scared to go to the clinic .
Hi Pari,
I’m sorry to hear about this accident. However, if your friend is on HIV treatment (called ART) then the risk to your baby is very close to zero.
But you could discuss this with your doctor and ask if your baby needs an HIV test and when this should happen.
Hi i am a healthy woman without HIV Positive but accidently my 5months little child breast feeding by my friend who is HIV positive is there is any risk of HIV positive to my baby or not?
Hi Precious,
Congratulations on your baby boy. It’s great he tested HIV negative. But please speak to your doctor about how long you need to give him the ilvitrim suspension.
You can also talk to the doctor about your HIV treatment. I hope that it’s going well for you.
I’m HIV positive n ma baby tested negative hw long will I give his m ilvitrim suspension he is on formula feed only now