Pregnancy planning has been identified as a key area of importance to people living with HIV in Canada.

Brock University’s Trent Newmeyer, Associate Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, has been working with women living with HIV in Ontario to investigate their pregnancy desires and options.

With proper management of HIV through a combination of medications called antiretroviral therapies, individuals with HIV are living longer, better quality lives.

On World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, individuals and organizations worldwide show their support for people living with HIV and AIDS. This is a chance to raise awareness, provide education and rethink outdated ideas of what it means to be HIV positive.

Newmeyer says through interviews conducted in Ontario, researchers have learned women living with HIV have about the same motivations as women who don’t have HIV when it comes to pregnancy and creating a family.

“Specifically, there are cultural pressures to have children, tied to a woman’s identity in the community, as well as the usual spousal and familial pressures.”

The transmission of HIV from an HIV-positive mother to her child during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding is called mother-to-child transmission. In the absence of any interventions, the World Health Organization reports transmission rates range from 15-45 per cent.

“Now with effective treatment and intervention, the likelihood of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Canada is less than 1 per cent. This makes pregnancy a viable option for those that want to start a family,” says Newmeyer.

To ensure care and treatment of pregnant women and the elimination of pediatric HIV infections, education is the big issue. Both HIV-positive women and health professionals need to know what options and interventions exist in order for them to be utilized.

“Unfortunately, women living with HIV in Niagara face particularly unique challenges,” says Newmeyer.

First, there is no HIV specialist in the Niagara region, so people have to travel to Hamilton for their HIV care, which is a barrier. Positive Living Niagara does an amazing job providing transport to Hamilton for those who need it. However, given the stigmatized nature of HIV and the resulting lack of disclosure about status to friends, family and community members, this means extra precautions need to be taken to maintain confidentiality.

Due to the lack of awareness about HIV in Niagara, other barriers to family making could include accessing and using sperm washing services at fertility clinics for sero-discordant couples (where the man is HIV positive and the woman is HIV negative) and barriers to accessing adoption options for the HIV community.

Newmeyer is currently evaluating the P3 program at St. Michaels hospital in Toronto where an ob-gyn and midwife work together with social, legal and other agencies to make the pregnancy as positive as possible for the mother and baby.