First of all, congratulations on your pregnancy.<\/p>\n
The WHO [World Health Organisation] guidelines for treatment in pregnancy recommend\u00a0 all pregnant women wshould start antiretroviral treatment (ART).<\/p>\n
They also recommend that ART for the prevention of mother to child transmission should be started as early as possible, and especially after the first 3 months. This is indepdent of the edicison to use\u00a0treatment for your own health.<\/p>\n
ART during\u00a0pregnancy as the key factor in reducing\u00a0the risk of transmission of HIV to your baby. This ideally means\u00a0having an undetectable viral load at the time of delivery.<\/p>\n
Viral load refers to the amount of virus in your body. Undetectable means\u00a0having so little HIV that the standard test cannot find any virus. You can only achieve an undetectable viral load by taking ART. The earlier you can achieve and maintain this, the better.<\/p>\n
For more information see this guide\u00a0on HIV, pregnancy and women’s health<\/a>. It answers a lot of questions you may also have around HIV and pregnancy in general.<\/p>\n