Women with HIV can now give birth to healthy babies with little risk of them becoming infected. This is thanks to HIV drugs that cut the risk of the baby getting HIV both before and after it is born.
But without HIV treatment a mother can pass on HIV to her baby in these ways:
- the baby becomes infected while still in the womb
- it becomes infected during childbirth following contact with the mother’s blood
- it gets HIV after being born through feeding on infected breast milk.
In the UK very few HIV positive babies are now born: 99.9 per cent of babies born to mothers with HIV do not get HIV so long as the mother takes HIV drugs before giving birth that bring the level of HIV in her blood down to ‘undetectable’ levels.
Pregnant women are offered an HIV test during pregnancy and if they are found to have HIV they can be given drugs in the last few months of pregnancy that greatly cut the risk of the virus being passed on to their unborn baby. These drugs also mean that during childbirth the risk of infection is greatly reduced. As a precaution a mother might be advised to give birth by a caesarean delivery.
Whatever way she gives birth, the mother will be advised to bottle-feed her new baby so that the child does not get infected though breast milk containing HIV. For a month after being born the baby will also be given HIV medication to be extra sure it does not become infected. HIV drugs are safe and pose no risk to the baby.