From An Infected Mother To Her Unborn Child

Women can transmit HIV to their fetuses during pregnancy or birth. Approximately one-quarter to one-third of all untreated pregnant women infected with HIV will pass the infection to their babies.

A pregnant woman can greatly reduce the risk of infecting her baby if she takes the anti-HIV drug AZT (also called zidovudine) during her pregnancy. Because the risk of transmission increases with longer delivery times, the risk can be further reduced by delivering the baby by cesarean section, a surgical procedure in which the baby is delivered through an incision in the mother's abdominal wall and uterus. Combining AZT treatment with cesarean delivery can reduce the infection rate to between 1% and 2%.

HIV also can be spread to babies through the breast milk of mothers infected with the virus.

• Women who live in countries where safe alternatives to breast-feeding are readily available and affordable can eliminate the risk of transmitting the virus through breast milk by bottle-feeding their babies.
• In developing countries, however, where such safe alternatives are not readily available or economically feasible, breast-feeding may offer benefits that outweigh the risk of HIV transmission.