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Delivering positive hope
When she started out, there was extensive fear about how HIV/ AIDS spread, and the worst hit were expectant mothers who were HIV +ve. Now, almost 20 years later, Dr Amudha Hari, who has helped close to 1,500 HIV positive women deliver normal babies, says that empowering the mother is the prime duty.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
“It is the couple’s decision whether they want to have the baby or not. But what is more important is to empower mothers to make that decision. I have seen that as many as 99.9 per cent of mothers make the decision to have the child,” she says.
Dr Amudha adds that it is important to follow the necessary protocol to help mothers avoid infections, ensure nutrition and stick to ART during the gestation period. “Around 70 per cent of the transmission happens during delivery. Though the mother can have a normal delivery, we opt for C-section,” she says.
In the beginning, she saw a number of women from other states, opting for delivery. “Today it more from the State and the medical staff have been sensitised. But we must realise with the falling rates of mother to child transmission, we shouldn’t be laid back about the disease. It is incurable and anyone contracting it suffers from loss of quality of life. We need to continue focusing on adolescent health, safe sex, etc,” she says.
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