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When Pregnancy Coincides with Positive Diagnosis of HIV: Accounts of the Process of Acceptance of Self and Motherhood among Women in South Africa

Literature has highlighted the unique period of vulnerability following an HIV diagnosis during pregnancy. Despite the high burden of HIV among pregnant women in South Africa, the experiences of women diagnosed with HIV during pregnancy have rarely been explored in isolation from those diagnosed at...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Madiba, Sphiwe
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8700982/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34948615
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413006
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author Madiba, Sphiwe
author_facet Madiba, Sphiwe
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description Literature has highlighted the unique period of vulnerability following an HIV diagnosis during pregnancy. Despite the high burden of HIV among pregnant women in South Africa, the experiences of women diagnosed with HIV during pregnancy have rarely been explored in isolation from those diagnosed at different times. This paper explored the experiences of women who were diagnosed with HIV when pregnant and assessed their emotional recovery beyond diagnosis. The study used a qualitative descriptive phenomenological approach to conduct interviews with women recruited from ART clinics in a health district in South Africa. Participants included 19 women sampled purposively. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed following the thematic approach. Testing positive during pregnancy and being free of symptoms increased the shock, disbelief, and strong emotions exhibited. For the women, the diagnosis of HIV coincided with pregnancy and transformed pregnancy from excitement to anxiety. Although the transition from being HIV negative to becoming HIV positive and pregnant was overwhelming, with the passage of time, the women transitioned to feelings of acceptance. However, the process of acceptance was slow and varied, with some experiencing non-acceptance for extended periods. Non-acceptance of HIV diagnosis has serious adverse public health consequences for the individual. Integrating continuous HIV counselling and culturally appropriate psychosocial care into practice could foster acceptance for pregnant women with HIV diagnosis.
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spelling pubmed-87009822021-12-24 When Pregnancy Coincides with Positive Diagnosis of HIV: Accounts of the Process of Acceptance of Self and Motherhood among Women in South Africa Madiba, Sphiwe Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Literature has highlighted the unique period of vulnerability following an HIV diagnosis during pregnancy. Despite the high burden of HIV among pregnant women in South Africa, the experiences of women diagnosed with HIV during pregnancy have rarely been explored in isolation from those diagnosed at different times. This paper explored the experiences of women who were diagnosed with HIV when pregnant and assessed their emotional recovery beyond diagnosis. The study used a qualitative descriptive phenomenological approach to conduct interviews with women recruited from ART clinics in a health district in South Africa. Participants included 19 women sampled purposively. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed following the thematic approach. Testing positive during pregnancy and being free of symptoms increased the shock, disbelief, and strong emotions exhibited. For the women, the diagnosis of HIV coincided with pregnancy and transformed pregnancy from excitement to anxiety. Although the transition from being HIV negative to becoming HIV positive and pregnant was overwhelming, with the passage of time, the women transitioned to feelings of acceptance. However, the process of acceptance was slow and varied, with some experiencing non-acceptance for extended periods. Non-acceptance of HIV diagnosis has serious adverse public health consequences for the individual. Integrating continuous HIV counselling and culturally appropriate psychosocial care into practice could foster acceptance for pregnant women with HIV diagnosis. MDPI 2021-12-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8700982/ /pubmed/34948615 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413006 Text en © 2021 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Madiba, Sphiwe
When Pregnancy Coincides with Positive Diagnosis of HIV: Accounts of the Process of Acceptance of Self and Motherhood among Women in South Africa
title When Pregnancy Coincides with Positive Diagnosis of HIV: Accounts of the Process of Acceptance of Self and Motherhood among Women in South Africa
title_full When Pregnancy Coincides with Positive Diagnosis of HIV: Accounts of the Process of Acceptance of Self and Motherhood among Women in South Africa
title_fullStr When Pregnancy Coincides with Positive Diagnosis of HIV: Accounts of the Process of Acceptance of Self and Motherhood among Women in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed When Pregnancy Coincides with Positive Diagnosis of HIV: Accounts of the Process of Acceptance of Self and Motherhood among Women in South Africa
title_short When Pregnancy Coincides with Positive Diagnosis of HIV: Accounts of the Process of Acceptance of Self and Motherhood among Women in South Africa
title_sort when pregnancy coincides with positive diagnosis of hiv: accounts of the process of acceptance of self and motherhood among women in south africa
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8700982/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34948615
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413006
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