HIV and Breastfeeding
If you are pregnant or you have had a baby, you must know that HIV and breastfeeding cannot go together. HIV can be transmitted to the baby through breast milk. Your doctor will advise you not to breastfeed your baby. During pregnancy, antiretroviral medications are used in preventing HIV from infecting the baby. However, not all antiretroviral medications are good for you during your pregnancy, so you must never use any of these without your doctor’s knowledge.
If you have had a baby and everything went fine, next thing to take care of is how to feed your baby. Formula milk is a good solution to this problem. However, there are mothers who simply cannot afford formula and this is a huge problem in some parts of the world. In addition, polluted water is another problem to deal with. The fact that some mothers cannot even afford pure water – let alone formula milk, is sad. In other words, these mothers do not have any choice but to breastfeed their children.
Breastfeeding is extremely risky in these cases. Did you know that 1/3 of HIV positive children are infected with HIV through breastfeeding?
HIV positive mothers must be well informed about how to feed their babies. Formula milk remains the only solution. In addition, the water must be pure, too. HIV positive mothers must have proper counseling. Medical institutions must provide help to these mothers and make sure to provide some good education on HIV and prevention.
There is no cure to this illness, but there are ways to prevent it. Antiretroviral medications are effective in preventing mother-to-child transmission, but breastfeeding is another thing. Even if you use antiretroviral medications, your breast milk still contains the virus, which makes breastfeeding extremely risky. If you have any questions, contact your doctor and ask for some advice.