Does a pregnant woman with AIDS / HIV always pass it on to their unborn child? What are the odds?
No, she does not always pass it on to the unborn child. The odds are getting better (last I heard the odds where – with out medication you pass it to the child with a 1 in 4 chance – with medications it drops to a 1 in 12 chance). If you are pregnant and HIV+ make sure your Dr. is aware of it. What generally happens is that the mother will start (if she hasn’t already) a cocktail of drugs in the last trimester to get the viral load as low as possible. The virus isn’t passed on through the umbilical cord – it is passed on during the birth process. Thus by getting rid of as much of the virus as possible – the child has a better chance of not contracting the virus during birth. The next risk factor for the child is then in post-natal care. You can’t breast feed for example. The Dr. will advise you on all the precautions to be taken. By the way – this is a very new process. There may be some long range problems for the child from the medications that we have yet to see.
