| Abstrakt: |
Enhancements in the medical management of HIV disease and improvements in sociocultural attitudes toward HIV-infected people have their limitations, even after 30 years of the pandemic. This appears to be especially true for HIV-positive women, particularly for those who become pregnant. Discrimination and stigma may be keeping this group of women from seeking prenatal care. To determine the extent to which this is true, this qualitative study was conducted using ethnographic inquiry to elicit HIV-infected women's perceptions of how they were treated by health-care providers when they became pregnant. Life histories indicate that the women had negative experiences at some point during their pregnancies and continue to face opposition from the health-care system that is meant to nurture them through their childbearing years. Given the significant public health implications of HIV-positive women becoming pregnant, improvements are needed to improve the approach that health-care providers display toward HIV-positive, pregnancy women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
