MAMA+ Helps Reduce Child Abandonment By Mothers Living with HIV
Anna, age 20, discovered her HIV-positive status in the eighth month of her pregnancy. An orphan without close relatives to help her, she was depressed, upset and scared, with no expectation of any external support. Anna had no documents proving her identity, nor income to live on. In fact, she had already decided that after delivering she would leave the baby at the maternity hospital.
Ukraine has one of the highest HIV incidence rates in Eastern Europe, and as a result must deal with the socio-economic consequences of the epidemic, including abandonment of children born to HIV+ mothers. The statistics are alarming. The number of children born to HIV+ mothers in Ukraine has reached almost 11,000, with the eastern and southern parts of the country most affected. The number of HIV+ mothers grows by 20% annually. Almost a quarter of HIV+ pregnant women learn about their status during or after giving birth. They represent the most vulnerable social group, and the risk of child abandonment is greatest for them: every fifth child born to a HIV+ mother is left at the maternity hospital.
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Thanks to MAMA+, this baby boy will go home with his biological family
Photo Credit: Zore Godeleyeva and Snizhana Svidinska |
HIV+ pregnant women and young mothers often lack basic understanding of HIV and prevention of its transmission to the infant. Children are often abandoned as a result of family pressure, which is based on inaccurate information about HIV or because the mother lacks external support structures – not necessarily because the mother fears infecting her child.
The launch of the USAID-supported Prevention of Abandonment of Children Born to HIV+ Mothers (MAMA+) Project in the summer 2005 has slowly helped to change the situation. MAMA+ seeks to create systems, capacity and commitment in Ukraine to keep children born to HIV+ mothers within their biological families. It provides comprehensive psychological, social, medical and legal support for HIV+ mothers and their families in Donetsk, Kyiv and the Crimea. MAMA+ is implemented by the Doctors of the World-USA in close partnership with the All-Ukrainian Network of PLWHA, and relies heavily on the referral network of its local partners, including city maternity hospitals, regional prenatal and AIDS centers, and babies’ homes. Multi-disciplinary case management teams of two social workers, two psychologists, a medical worker and a lawyer identify and help young HIV+ mothers in need.
When Anna contacted MAMA+ last October, the project’s social workers arranged for her to be admitted to Maternity Hospital #4, where she stayed until her delivery. The project staff visited Anna regularly, providing psychological support, medication, food and other necessities for her and her future baby.
Until she actually gave birth, Anna was determined to abandon her baby to the state. She did not see how she would survive with an infant added to her burden. After five weeks of intense attention and comprehensive support from the MAMA+ project staff prior to delivery, Anna felt much more confident and decided to give life with her newborn a try. Anna’s healthy baby boy, Nikolai, was born on December 17, 2005.
Today Anna has hope. She has returned to work as a saleswoman, and has resumed living in her old apartment, along with another young mother who has agreed to sit with Nikolai while Anna works. Addressing long-term support structures for Anna, MAMA+ psychologists also are paying special attention to supporting her effort to develop a relationship with her extended family. Anna says that now she sees a way to go on living. She believes that without MAMA+ support she would not have been able to keep the baby or even keep herself going. Anna has become a more confident young mother with a future before her.
As of March 31, 2006, MAMA+ has helped 58 children born to HIV+ mothers to remain with their biological families and receive needed support.
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