Giving birth to an HIV negative child

ALLETA Kelemende discovered that she was HIV positive in 2012 December while pregnant with her second child. She was four months pregnant.

She then went through the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) Programme at the Engela District Hospital until she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

PMTCT services address the burden of vertical transmission of HIV, and with a high HIV prevalence rate, babies risk acquiring the virus from their mothers. Hoping to give her son a chance to an HIV free life, Kelemende kept up with the PMTCT treatment.

The 26 year old now lives in Ombili, and agreed to meet The Namibian at the Namibia Planned Parenthood Association clinic in Okuryangava to share her story. After her diagnosis, Kelemende said she struggled to accept her status, until she thought about it and realised it is not so bad.

‘Some people have lost their legs, while others need to battle cancer until their time comes. HIV is no longer a death sentence. If you take your medication, you can live a normal life,’ she stated.

Kelemende started treatment in January 2013 whilst four months pregnant, going for five by then. She also received the medicine to prevent mother to child transmission.

‘I would take the pills twice a day, same time every day. I then started getting allergies. I went back to the nurse, and she said they might not be suitable for my blood. She changed the prescription. I continued taking medication, and the allergies stopped,’ she narrated.

Kelemende is one of many women who has managed her HIV status. The fact that she wanted the joy of motherhood, being HIV positive did not stop her from her having a baby. The healthy baby boy was delivered in April 2013.

‘I understood the importance of breastfeeding without mixing with anything. No water, no porridge, just breast milk for six months,’ she recalls.

Kelemende said she could visit any hospital whenever she travelled, as long as she had her health passport.

‘As soon as you discover you are pregnant and you are HIV positive, start treatment to prevent your child from getting the virus and provide them with a lifetime opportunity,’ she noted.

She said: ‘If you go too late, you will have no one to blame but yourself. And then when you have to struggle making sure you take your own medication and your child does so as well, it is another burden because the child will be no one else’s responsibility but your own.’

A report on the 2012 national HIV sentinel survey shows that about 27 000 people were on PMTCT while others do not go, despite government’s efforts to have mothers give birth to HIV negative children.

One such person is an 18 year old mother, who also agreed to talk to The Namibian at her rented room where she stays with the father of her four month old baby.

The teenage mother, who later opted not to have her name mentioned, gave birth to an HIV positive child after failing to go for PMTCT.

She explained that she failed to receive PMTCT because she was not going for medical check ups, and did not know she was positive.

‘I last went when I discovered I was pregnant. I was three months into the pregnancy. I was not positive at the time, and I only discovered at birth that I was positive,’ she said.

Tears rolled down her cheeks while looking at her daughter who was lying on the bed, playing with her mother’s scarf.

‘I feel bad. If I had done routine check ups, my daughter would have been safe by now. My boyfriend was supportive, so when I tested positive, I was shocked because I never cheated on him.

I was angry and wanted to leave the child in the hospital and just run away, but the nurses convinced me that I could still give her a normal life if I looked after her,’ she added.

The teenage mother, who is now on antiretroviral therapy, said although life is tough for them, she feels hopeful again and plans to return to school to complete Grade 12. With nowhere to go, she still lives with the father of her child.

Currently, there are 9 965 children on antiretroviral therapy at state hospitals. Of this number, 5 014 are male and 4 951 female.

Information contained in the World Health Organisation’s analytical summary of Namibia’s HIV AIDS status says there are an estimated 178 000 people living with HIV in Namibia, among whom are some 14 000 children below the age of 15.

The entry points into the PMTCT programme for every pregnant woman and her partner is knowledge of their status, says a registered nurse, Emilia Namhadi.

This, she said, is very important for women who are already on medication because they will be taught the right time to conceive and monitored if there is a need to change medication.

Namhadi said it was also a challenge as not all women are able to visit the clinic with their partners as some partners are not willing to come as those who might have more than one partner do not want to be seen in public.

She said people also have so many beliefs about antiretroviral therapy as well as PMTCT, and thus advised them to visit health centres for the correct information.

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