HIV & Pregnancy

HIV & Pregnancy

HIV can pass from a woman to her baby:

• during pregnancy
• at birth
• through breast-feeding

Protect your baby.

If you are HIV-positive and pregnant, proper HIV treatment and care can reduce the risk of your child being HIV-positive to less than 2 percent.

Talk with your healthcare provider to find out more.

HIV & Drug Use

HIV can be passed on through shared needles and other drug equipment.

Sharing needles and other drug equipment is very risky.

Another virus called hepatitis C can also be spread when sharing drug equipment. hepatitis C damages the liver. It is passed when the blood from someone who has hepatitis C gets into the bloodstream of another person.

Protect yourself and the people you do drugs with.

If you use drugs, there are things you can do to protect yourself and use drugs in a safer way. This is called harm reduction.

Staying safe from CATIE’s Hepatitis C Website

To practise safer drug use…

• Use a clean new needle and syringe every time you use.
• Use your own drug equipment (such as pipes, bills, straws, cookers, water, alcohol swabs) every time. Never share equipment, not even with your sex partner.
• Get new needles and supplies from your local harm reduction program, needle exchange or community health centre.
• Get tested for HIV and hepatitis C. If you know that you have HIV or hepatitis C, you can take steps to protect yourself and others.

If you do not have access to a needle exchange…

As a last resort, your own needles can be cleaned before each time you use them, but it is still best not to share with other people. Cleaning means flushing the syringe twice with clean water, twice with bleach, and then twice with new water. Each flushing should last 30 seconds. This will kill HIV, but it will not protect you from hepatitis C.