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.