The mental health of pregnant women living with HIV

Caring for pregnant women living with HIV

Since the pregnant woman lives with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), other peculiarities begin in this woman’s care process because the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS or AIDS) is a chronic and infectious disease which works by weakening the immune system. It is worth noting that living with the HIV virus does not mean having AIDS, as the disease only develops as the virus multiplies, destroying T-CD4+ lymphocyte cells. This concept transformed the concept of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) to Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) because it emphasizes the possibility that an infection can be transmitted even if the person does not have any type of sign or symptom, which is important to be taken with into consideration because it changes the panorama of women’s health care.

In this sense, the health care of pregnant women living with HIV has particularities such as the use of antiretroviral drugs, participation from the infectology service, carrying out tests to identify the viral load, testing for others STIs, planning the use of medications that inhibit postpartum lactation, among others. Furthermore, the mental health of the pregnant woman needs to be taken into account because all the changes during the gestational period, added to this new routine, with insecurities and doubts, can generate conflicts due to such demand. In this way, demonstrating that the woman needs a greater contribution towards her mental condition, which is often already vulnerable to issues involving her pregnancy living with HIV, as it is known that this is an infection that has different paradigms and taboos, especially during pregnancy, which leads the woman to fear the complications that may occur with her baby’s health.

Although there are medications that act as prophylaxis for the The baby does not become infected with the HIV virus during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum, which can guarantee a certain tranquility for the woman, many experience the feeling of guilt, often imposed by the society that judges her, or due to the lack of knowledge about the subject or with prejudices regarding the possibility of transmission from the virus to the baby. For this reason, it is essential to monitor a health professional who is aware of the mental health issues of these women, as the investigation of depressive symptoms is necessary to identify possible depressive symptoms during the prenatal period, thus contributing to the correct direction to the care of these pregnant women. (MARQUES et al, 2021).

Final messages

Nursing care for women living with HIV goes beyond the gestational period, it also includes childbirth and the postpartum period until at least 18 months of life for the child born to an HIV-positive mother, when, only with that time, it is possible to say that an infection by vertical transmission did not occur. Therefore, nurses must understand some issues that appear in studies such as the one by Almeida, Borges and Oliveira (2020), which reveal that pregnant women have emotional vulnerabilities, and use “strategies focused on the search for fanciful religious support to face problems , a resource that can act as a protective, avoidance factor, especially when related to the presence of anxiety symptoms.”