Eliminating HIV Status as a Barrier to Quality Care for New Mothers
Natalia G. discusses baby care with Larissa P. as they share a meal in the Symferopol Maternity Hospital No. 2 cafeteria. They have much in common: they delivered their newborns about the same time, they receive the same type of treatment from the medical staff, and both have relatives who visit them to help take care of their babies.
One might never notice differences between the two women if one didn’t know that Natalia is HIV positive.
“I don’t feel any different from the other women here,” says Natalia G. “I eat together with the other women and talk about how we will care for our babies after our discharge. My relatives can also come here any time and spend as much time as they want.”
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Mothers treated equally at Symferopol Maternity Hospital No. 2
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Thanks to USAID’s Maternal and Infant Health Project (MIHP), Natalia G. doesn’t feel the stigma and discrimination that often comes with her positive HIV status. She is just a happy mother to her daughter. But had her baby been born a year ago, Natalia G. may have been in a very different situation.
“All the changes in the maternity hospital became possible due to the enthusiastic spirit and professionalism of all the trainers and various workers in the HIV/AIDS field, who changed Maternity Hospital No. 2 medical staff’s attitudes to HIV+ women,” said Dr. Illya Glazkov, the hospital’s Chief Doctor and Chief OB/GYN, who added that a significant benefit is that mothers now abandon HIV-positive newborns less frequently.
When MIHP staff arrived at Maternity Hospital No.2, where all HIV-positive women from Crimea must deliver their babies, they found a lot of stigma-related double standards for HIV-positive women in the maternity hospital and women’s clinic. Separate facilities for seropositive women included isolated delivery/operation rooms located in the basement and isolated postpartum rooms where guests were not allowed. In addition, infants born to HIV-positive women – who should not breastfeed – were separated often from their mothers for formula feeding. However, the MIHP team found that the newborns were seldom fed properly, as the healthcare staff charged with this responsibility had not received adequate training.
The most tangible evidence of the stigma and discrimination pregnant HIV-positive women faced was in the form of a thick, brick wall, constructed specifically to separate them from the rest of the maternity hospital.
In less than a year, the MIHP project succeeded in implementing HIV prevention and treatment services, improving care and support to HIV-positive pregnant and postpartum women. The project introduced effective and innovative trainings on topics such as “effective prevention of HIV from mother to child in perinatal facilities” and organized workshops with healthcare providers of various institutions and representatives of Network of People Living with HIV. The pregnant HIV-positive mothers also learned about special delivery methods, Cesarean sections, treatments, optimum support and counseling in the postpartum period, family-oriented support and referral mechanisms in case of emergencies.
The results turned to be truly amazing. Today HIV-positive women deliver in comfortable, private delivery rooms at the maternity hospital. Relatives are encouraged to visit the new mothers and help them feed their babies. Family support is particularly helpful because all HIV-positive women deliver their babies by Cesarean section to reduce transmission to newborns. And last but not least, that solid brick wall separating HIV-positive women from the rest of the hospital has come down.
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