Healthyvives Health Blog

There are various issues related to mother-to-child transmission, which are still debatable. Some of the debatable issues are:
1) Whether HIV positive women should be encouraged to have a child or not?
2) Whether HIV-positive in others should not breast-feed their infants?
3) Should every person undergo HIV counselling and testing routinely?
4) Should HIV positive men and women marry among themselves or not?

1) Should HIV- positive women be encouraged to have children or not?
It is every .women’s fundamental right to decide for herself, without coercion, whether she should have children or not. This is enshrined in the International Human Rights Conventions. It is the responsibility of the Government and health services to provide HIV- positive women and their partners with comprehensive information and education about the risks associated with child bearing as part of routine public information about HIV/AIDS. The health services should ensure that they have real choices of action and respect and support the decisions that they reach.

2) Whether HIV- positive mother be told to breast-feed her baby?
Breast-feeding has been the corner stone of child health and survival strategies for the past two decades and has played a pivotal role in reducing infant mortality rate in many countries. Even in the era of AIDS, breast-feeding remains the best possible nutrition for the great majority of babies. As against this there is another view. You may recall that the transmission of HIV through breast milk is about 14 per cent. If the mother has received prophylaxis to prevent mother to child transmission, then it is illogical to recommend breast-feeding.

3) Whether each and every reproductive population should undergo confidential HIV counselling and testing or not is an ethical consideration. This is very much essential, as it becomes a global concern in terms of its magnitude and severity. It is very much needed for pregnant and married women and their male counterpart.
For pregnant, women to take advantage of measures to protect their off spring from HIV infection they need to know whether or not they are infected. Hence, voluntary counselling and testing services are an essential part of any programme for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Ideally, however, every one should have access to such services since there are clear advantages to know one’s sero-status. People who know they are HIV infected are likely to be motivated to look after their health, perhaps with behaviour and life-style changes and to seek early medical attention for problems. They can take wise decisions about sexual practices, child bearing and infant feeding and be steps to protect partners who may still be infected. And those whose test results are negative can be counselled about how to protect themselves, their partners and their children from infection.

4) Whether HIV-positive men and women can marry among themselves or not is another debatable question?
As far as right of a human being is concerned, HIV-positive men and women may marry among themselves,