Abstract

Kurewa N. E.*, Munjoma M. W., Hussain A., Chirenje Z. M., Sebit M. B and Stray-Pedersen B.

Contraceptive uptake and pregnancy desires have not been adequately reported within prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) initiatives in developing countries. Women were enrolled from a PMTCT program at 36 gestational weeks. A questionnaire on contraception and conception desires was interview administered to the women between 3 and 24 months after birth. A total of 273 women responded to the questionnaire, 189 HIV infected and 84 HIV negative. Significant differences were observed by HIV status for all types of contraception with 22% of the HIV infected women reporting none usage compared to 14% for HIV negatives (p < 0.001). Over 50% of the HIV infected women reported using condoms compared to 13% among the negatives (p < 0.001), whereas 13% of HIV infected women expressed desire for subsequent children. More than 60% of the women did not know their sexual partner’s HIV status regardless of their own, whilst 25% of the HIV infected had not disclosed their status to their sexual partners. Contraceptive use was high regardless of women’s HIV status, whereas a high proportion of HIV negative women were not using condoms. Some of the HIV infected women expressed future pregnancy desires whilst others had not disclosed their HIV status.