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Having children

From Next steps • 1 December 2008

HIV positive women have the right to have a family. In fact, many HIV positive women in Australia have chosen to have children.

Due to the advances in HIV treatments and our knowledge of HIV, there are many strategies that can be used to minimise the risk of passing HIV on from mother to child. The risk of passing HIV from mother to child is very low (under one per cent) if your viral loadA measurement of the quantity of HIV RNA in the blood. Viral load blood test results are expressed as the number of copies (of HIV) per milliliter of blood plasma. is undetectable, your CD4 count is high and you use treatments during pregnancy and delivery to reduce viral load.

Other ways of reducing the risk of transmission from mother to child includes having a Caesarean birth, choosing not to breastfeed and accessing good obstetric care. Caesarean births used to be routinely recommended, but nowadays many women are choosing to have a vaginal birth if their viral load is undetectable.

Next steps

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This Resource was first published on 1 December 2008 — more than three years ago.

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