HIV-positive mom optimistic about future


Mgungundlovu. – My husband and I were very excited when I fell pregnant in 2006. We’ve been trying to conceive for a couple of years and by that time we weren’t sure if we could have a child. So when it did happen, we felt truly blessed – but little did we know what was still to come.
When I went to see the doctor for an ultrasound he commented on a mark in my neck, which I thought was just an insect bite. He said that it looked like shingles, which could be an indication that I was HIV positive.
I was very upset at the news that I may be HIV positive, especially when the doctor suggested that I might have to terminate the pregnancy. Shocked and confused I walked out of the doctor’s office without even completing the ultrasound and asked my husband to take me to the nearest hospital where I can get an HIV test.
As I feared the result for my HIV test came back positive, but at the new facility they were able to counsel me about my condition and I learned that I didn’t have to terminate my pregnancy, and that there is a good chance that my child may be HIV negative. Fearing for my health, my husband was hesitant to go through with the pregnancy, but after counselling he also understood that HIV-positive people can live long, healthy lives.
Today the Prevention-from-Mother-to-Child-Treatment (PMTCT) is a lot more advanced than when I was pregnant five years ago. But I took the medication as indicated and made sure my baby girl received her Nevirapine drops at birth, and today she is five-years old and HIV-negative.
I have since also started on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and am determined to stay healthy and live positively so that I can see my daughter graduate from university.
Thandiwe Mazanqinqi-Zamisa is an OurHealth Citizen Journalist reporting from Mgungundlovu health district in KwaZulu-Natal.
Author
-
Health-e News is South Africa's dedicated health news service and home to OurHealth citizen journalism. Follow us on Twitter @HealtheNews
View all posts
Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Unless otherwise noted, you can republish our articles for free under a Creative Commons license. Here’s what you need to know:
-
You have to credit Health-e News. In the byline, we prefer “Author Name, Publication.” At the top of the text of your story, include a line that reads: “This story was originally published by Health-e News.” You must link the word “Health-e News” to the original URL of the story.
-
You must include all of the links from our story, including our newsletter sign up link.
-
If you use canonical metadata, please use the Health-e News URL. For more information about canonical metadata, click here.
-
You can’t edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week”)
-
You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate, or otherwise represent yourself as the authorized owner of our material to any third parties. This means that you cannot actively publish or submit our work for syndication to third party platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. Health-e News understands that publishers cannot fully control when certain third parties automatically summarise or crawl content from publishers’ own sites.
-
You can’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually.
-
If you share republished stories on social media, we’d appreciate being tagged in your posts. You can find us on Twitter @HealthENews, Instagram @healthenews, and Facebook Health-e News Service.
You can grab HTML code for our stories easily. Click on the Creative Commons logo on our stories. You’ll find it with the other share buttons.
If you have any other questions, contact info@health-e.org.za.
HIV-positive mom optimistic about future
by Health-e News, Health-e News
January 9, 2013
MOST READ
Lack of ambulance forces woman to give birth near hospital gate
US aid Freeze: Call for urgent plan and increased budget for health
Kindness costs: The hidden sacrifices nurses make for patients with TB
US funding freeze disrupts HIV, TB, and GBV support services
EDITOR'S PICKS
Related

Kindness costs: The hidden sacrifices nurses make for patients with TB

US aid Freeze: Call for urgent plan and increased budget for health


Kindness costs: The hidden sacrifices nurses make for patients with TB

US aid Freeze: Call for urgent plan and increased budget for health
