Fertility preferences and the need for contraception among women living with HIV: the basis for a joint action agenda

Abstract

HIV-positive women who know their serostatus exhibit fertility desires and contraceptive behaviors that are different from those of other women. These findings support the argument that efforts to scale up the second element of the strategy to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV should be accelerated: it is a cost-effective, rights-based approach to preventing incidence of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Scaling up requires full commitment by both reproductive health/family planning and HIV constituencies to concerted integration at all levels of program planning, coordination and implementation.