It is definitely possible.
An HIV-positive mother can give birth to a HIV-negative baby.
Study reveals that HIV is transmitted through blood contamination, sexual contact, mother-infant. Photos of AIDS children infected through mother-to-child transmission in underdeveloped areas are really striking.
How can an infected woman make a healthy infant?
Attention:
The chance of mother-to-child transmission ranges from 15% to 45% without intervention, but it can be lowered down to less than 5% or even 1% in certain cases if interventions are taken timely before and during pregnancy.
Here, doctors usually take two precautions in case of an HIV positive mother.
How? This starts with mother-to-child transmission mechanism.
It is also called vertical transmission, which mainly refers to the HIV transmission from a mother to her baby during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.
If infected women do not receive treatment, virus can proliferate in their blood and vaginas.
Maternal and fetal blood won’t be blended directly in general because of [placental barrier], which ensures the safety of fetal growth.
Any damaging factor can encourage blood to mingle, thus leading to infection.
The real danger starts during the delivery, where uterine contraction will harm placenta. Therefore, mother’s HIV-positive blood may travel into the fetus through placenta and umbilical cord.
That’s why the most possible chance for mother-to-child transmission is during the delivery.
Other factors include: bacterial/viral infection, placental abruption, placenta previa, abdominal injury, physiological deformities, tobacco and wine, etc.
If nothing is done, newborns are vulnerable to infection.
Pregnant women in underdeveloped areas fail to intervene due to poor medical care, so infected babies are born.
Solutions:
Simply put, to reduce such probability, [Prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT)] shall be in place, including reasonable drug treatment, delivery and breastfeeding modes.
Measures:
- Adhere to antiviral drugs to control the amount of virus and improve immunity;
- Avoid [mother-to-child blood transfusion] by cesarean delivery;
- Take comprehensive interventions such as post-exposure prophylaxis for newborns.
A PMTCT program was carried out from 2005 to 2009 among the people living with HIV in rural areas of Yunnan province. In the end, only two out of 193 newborns tested positive (rate of 1% or so).
The outcome is getting infinitely closer to what the developed world has achieved.
To sum up, HIV-positive mothers can be certain to make normal infants.
Someone might choose not to have a baby because of the 1% chance of infection.
Be aware that a pregnant woman is at risk for infection throughout her pregnancy.
Most people who haven’t read this article may believe that the mother-to-child transmission rate is 100%, but it could actually go down to 1%.
Outsiders mentioned [not having a baby] as the solution.
While doctors insist on saving lives and patients strive to survive.
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