Question
I am HIV positive and pregnant, what are the risks?
7 January 2018. Related: All topics, Pregnancy.
I am 32, married and have two children. I am HIV positive and so is my husband. I recently discovered I am pregnant but my husband is furious with me, and has advised me to go for an abortion. I am now debating on what to do as I do not want to go through a pregnancy without the support of my husband. What are the risks in pregnancy when HIV positive?
Answer
Thank you for your question.
Congratulations on the pregnancy and I am sorry if this is causing problems with your husband.
Is he upset because he is worried about the child becoming positive? Or because he is worried about your health? Or something else?
Also, are you already taking HIV treatment (ART)? this is because ART is good for both you and your baby’s health.
Many HIV positive women all over the world give birth to healthy negative children using ART. There is no medical reason stopping you from having this baby if you decide you want to continue with the pregnancy.
Also, for your health, HIV positive women are not usually at any further risk of pregnancy-related complications than negative women. As far as the HIV is concerned, most women have a small drop in their CD4 count of about 50, but this goes up again once the baby is born. For more information on this please follow this link.
For general information about HIV, Pregnancy and Women’s Health please see this i-Base guide.
Good luck!
Note: this answer was updated in January 2018 from a question first posted in January 2011.
Hi Nomnqusho, please talk to your doctor about any symptoms. The doctor needs to decide whether this is just a cold (very common) or something else.
is fever or cold part of opportunistic virus and can they get to my baby…
am 7 months pregnant and hiv positive
Hi Nomnqusho, thanks. It is good that you can talk to your health workers. I was worried that perhaps you were not talking to anyone. At some point you might want to connect with other HIV positive people, if there is a local support group.
i only talk to my doctor and the life sense disease management people
Hi Nomnqusho, it is great that your viral load is undetectable. This means that so long as you keep taking the meds, the risk from HIV will be very low. Smoking and alcohol are much more serious a risk for your baby though. Anything you can do to stop these for the next two months will definitely help your baby. Is there anyone you can talk to for support for this?
hi
i have stopped drinking and smoking for a couple of months, but have started smoking again and am in my 7th month of pregnancy and i also drink but not that much maybe a glass per day but not everyday. last time i went to the clinic my viral load was below 50.
So what are the chances of my viral load being up again and my baby been infected…. I still take my meds everyday
Hi Nombuso,
Babies contract HIV from there mothers,therefore if you’re having unprotected sex this won’t cause your baby any problems. You may want to talk to your partner about your status, because he could possible be negative, or even positive but not know it.
I’m HIV positive nd 10 weeks pregnant iv been taking ARV for Six months nd my cd4 was 809 I don’t rely knw my partners status. Most of the the time we having sex without protection,so what are the chances of my baby being infected
Hi Nomnqusho,
You giving your boyfriend oral sex won’t have any impact on you nor your baby. What’s important when someone is positive and their pregnant is that they’re on meds. For more info, please see here:
http://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy
hi
so my boyfriend and i tried bin spontaneous so he asked for Oral sex at first i hesitated but ended up sucking him and he came inside my mouth but i did not swallow but knowing how quick sperms are am scared that i just put my baby at risk. We both hiv positive