HIV and Pregnancy: Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is one of the major factors affecting women’s health, with 20 million women living with HIV and more than two million pregnancies in HIV-positive women each year. Several studies conducted in SSA have reported that HIV-infected women are at increased risk of maternal adverse pregnancy outcomes such as stillbirth, LBW and preterm new-born. In addition, children born to HIVinfected mothers are at increased risk of mortality regardless of their HIV infectious status. Understanding pregnancy related risks HIV infected women may face is critical to providing appropriate counselling and management of fertility intentions, decisions and unintended pregnancy.