Mother to Child Transmission

Prevention-of-Mother-To-Child-Transmission of HIV Services in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Qualitative Analysis of Healthcare Providers and Clients Challenges in Ghana

Developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners, the correct adaptation and implementation of the global guidelines on prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV is critical. This study explored the challenges that health workers face implementing WHO’s PMTCT guidelines, and the experiences of HIV-positive clients receiving these services. [from abstract]

‘‘It Is Like That, We Didn’t Understand Each Other’’: Exploring the Influence of Patient-Provider Interactions on Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV Service Use in Rural Tanzania

Interactions between patients and service providers frequently influence uptake of prevention of mother-to-child
transmission (PMTCT) HIV services in sub-Saharan Africa, but this process has not been examined in depth. [from abstract]

Field Guide for Implementation of the Strategy and Plan of Action for Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Congenital Syphilis in the Americas

This field guide aims to: Summarize the lessons learned during the first three years of
implementation of the Strategy and Plan of Action for the Elimination of
Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Congenital Syphilis. And provide health authorities, program managers, and other health personnel with practical guidance on updating or developing plans for accelerated implementation of the Regional Strategy and Plan of Action. [adapted from introduction]

A Decade of Determination and Dedication: Improving Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Ethiopia

Ethiopia has made tremendous progress in providing health services to its large (87 million), and largely rural (83%), population. This is reflected in significant improvements in many maternal and child health indicators over the past ten years, including roughly a halving of infant and under-five mortality and an almost five-fold increase in the modern method contraceptive prevalence rate. At the heart of this expansion and its success is the health worker. [from introduction]

Sharing Tasks Among Health Care Workers in Uganda to Integrate Rapid Syphilis Testing in PMTCT Services

This article outlines a study to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and cost-effectiveness of introducing rapid syphilis tests for same-day testing and treatment of syphilis at established prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) sites in Uganda. [from author]

Evaluation of a Quality Improvement Intervention to Prevent Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) at Zambia Defence Force Facilities

This study evaluates the impact of an intervention that improve the quality of services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV at its health facilities, which included provider training, supportive supervision, detailed performance standards, repeated assessments of service quality, and task shifting of group education to lay workers. [adapted from abstract]

Using a Campaign Approach Among Health Workers to Increase Access to Antiretroviral Therapy for Pregnant HIV-Infected Women in South Africa

This study evaluated a targeted brief antiretroviral (ART) campaign among health workers that used quality improvement health systems approaches to significantly improve access to ART for HIV-infected pregnant women across a large health district in South Africa. [adapted from author]

Spread of PMTCT and ART Better Care Practices through Collaborative Learning in Tanzania

This evaluation aims to describe and analyze peer-to-peer learning among health workers and the spread of better care practices within regions and across regions improve care provided to those needing HIV and AIDS services. [adapted from summary]

Engagement of Non-Government Organizations and Community Care Workers in Collaborative TB/HIV Activities Including Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission in South Africa: Opportunities and Challenges

Using South Africa as a case study, this article reports on the engagement of non-governmental organizations and community care workers in the implementation of collaborative tuberculosis/HIV activities in rural South Africa, including extent of participation and constraints and opportunities to enhance effective participation. [adapted from abstract]

Listening to Health Workers: Lessons from Eastern Uganda for Strengthening the Programme for the Prevention of Monther-to-Child Transmission of HIV

This article explored the lessons learned by health workers involved in the provision of prevention of mother-to-child transmission services in eastern Uganda to better understand what more needs to be done to strengthen the program. [adapted from abstract]

Twubakane Gender-Based Violence/Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Readiness Assessment Toolkit

The Twubakane Gender-Based Violence/Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Readiness Assessment is a toolkit to assess the readiness of service providers, service facilities, the community and the policy environment to respond to gender-based violence at antenatal care/prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV service sites and in the community. Each file is a downloadable MS Word document, in English or French, that can be customized for the user’s location. [from publisher]

Developing National Training Materials for Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV: The Zimbabwe Experience

This chapter describes Zimbabwe’s experiences in developing national prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in-service and preservice training materials for facility and community-based health workers. It also discusses the specific challenges associated with training materials development in the context of the Zimbabwean national health system. [from author]

Development and Implementation of Training Packages for PMTCT and Pediatric HIV Care

This document discusses strategies and experiences in developing training materials and approaches for the implementation of health worker training programs for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) and pediatric HIV care.

Health System Weaknesses Constrain Access to PMTCT and Maternal HIV Services in South Africa: a Qualitative Enquiry

This study documented women’s experiences of accessing ART and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) program. In-depth interviews identified considerable weaknesses within operational HIV service delivery including: shortage in staff and supplies, lack of healthworker knowledge, stigma, and inadequacy of data and information systems for monitoring and evaluation. The analysis suggests that there is great scope for health system change, much of which centers on health personnel capacity and performance. [adapted from author]

Use of Traditional and Complementary Health Practices in Prenatal, Delivery and Postnatal Care in the Context of HIV Transmission from Mother to Child (PMTCT) in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

The aim of this study was to provide a baseline assessment in PMTCT in the traditional health sector to determine the views of women who have used the services of traditional practitioners before, during and/or after pregnancy; and to conduct formative research with traditional health practitioners (THPs), i.e. herbalists, diviners and traditional birth attendants on HIV, pregnancy care, delivery and infant care. [adapted from abstract]

Assessing Missed Opportunities for the Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission in an Eastern Cape Local Service Area

This article provides an assessment of the number and types of missed opportunities by health workers for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in Eastern Cape, South Africa. [adapted from introduction]

Health Workers' Views on Quality of Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission and Postnatal Care for HIV-Infected Women and Their Children

Prevention of mother-to-child transmission has been considered as not a simple intervention but a comprehensive set of interventions requiring capable health workers. Viet Nam’s extensive health care system reaches the village level, but still HIV-infected mothers and children have received inadequate health care services for prevention of mother-to-child transmission. We report here the health workers’ perceptions on factors that lead to their failure to give good quality prevention of mother-to-child transmission services. [from abstract]

Developing Hope in Life: Mothers' Support Groups for Living Positively in Ethiopia

The Mothers’ Support Group empowers mothers and mother-to-be to access peer-based support and make linkages to services such as family planning, infant-feeding, counseling, nutriotional guidance, antiretroviral therapy, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and health institutional delivery. [from author]

Participation of Traditional Birth Attendants in Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Services in Two Rural Districts in Zimbabwe: a Feasibility Study

Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV is among the key HIV prevention strategies in Zimbabwe. The main objective of this study was to evaluate acceptability and feasibility of reinforcing the role of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) in family and child health services through their participation in PMTCT programmes in Zimbabwe. [from abstract]

Testing a PMTCT Infant Feeding Counseling Program in Tanzania

This report describes the second phase of a study that developed and tested an integrated program of counselor job aids, mother take-home materials, and counselor training in a healthcare site providing counseling for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) in Moshi District in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. [from executive summary]

I Can Make a Difference in One's Family Life: Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV in Ethiopia

This brief discusses the Capacity Project’s work to train health workers to help prevent mother to child transmission of HIV.

Reflections on the Training of Counsellors in Motivational Interviewing for Programmes for the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa

Within the Southern African prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) programmes, counsellors talk with pregnant mothers about a number of interrelated decisions and behaviour changes. Current counselling has been characterised as ineffective in eliciting behaviour change and as adopting a predominantly informational and directive approach. Motivational interviewing (MI) was chosen as a more appropriate approach to guide mothers in these difficult decisions, as it is designed for conversations about behaviour change. MI has not previously been attempted in this context. This paper reflects on how MI can be incorporated successfully into PMTCT counselling and what lessons can be learnt regarding how to conduct training with counsellors.

Family Planning Choices for Women with HIV

Women with HIV have much the same reasons to have children or to prevent pregnancy as everyone else, but they have important additional issues to consider. These women’s health care providers have the responsibility to help them make well-informed and well-considered choices and carry out their decisions with the least risk.

Addressing Health Worker Shortages: Recruiting Retired Nurses to Reduce Mother-to-Child Transmission in Guyana

When GHARP set out to recruit new service providers [for preventing mother-to-child transmission], it faced a dilemma. Due to the limited supply of health workers in Guyana, the project needed to avoid recruiting health care providers already working for the MOH. Hiring existing health workers away from their jobs would simple reshuffle the distribution of health workers, rather than add new ones. To address the problem, GHARP staff decided to recruit retired nurses to fill the positions. [from author’s description]

HIV and Infant Feeding Counselling: Challenges Faced by Nurse-Counsellors in Northern Tanzania

Infant feeding is a subject of worry in prevention of mother to child transmission (pMTCT) programmes in settings where breastfeeding is normative. Nurse-counsellors, expected to counsel HIV-positive women on safer infant feeding methods as defined in national/international guidelines, are faced with a number of challenges. This study aims to explore the experiences and situated concerns of nurses working as infant feeding counsellors to HIV-positive mothers enrolled in pMTCT programmes in the Kilimanjaro region, northern Tanzania. [abstract]

Strategy for the Rapid Start-Up of the HIV/AIDS Program in Namibia: Outsourcing the Recruitment and Management of Human Resources for Health

In response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, Namibia’s public health sector is carrying out a comprehensive strategy to rapidly hire and deploy professional and non-professional health workers with the aim of providing comprehensive care, counseling and testing, as well as antiretroviral therapy (ART) and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). [from executive summary]

Integrating FP Services in VCT and PMTCT Sites: the Experience of Pathfinder International-Ethiopia in the Amhara Region

To maximize program impact with current resources, integration of Family Planning into existing HIV/AIDS programs is a very cost effective and an excellent point of entry. This is a study of an intervention program focused on initiating and also strengthening existing integration of FP into functional VCT, ART and PMTCT sites. The intervention encompassed an orientation on integration benefits to heads of health facilities; identification of challenges of integration and drawing of plan of action on how to overcome the challenges and improve integration.

Integrating TB and HIV Care in Mozambique: Lessons from an HIV Clinic in Beira

In Mozambique, [Health Alliance International] HAI has been working closely with the MOH for more than fifteen years to support the development and implementation of MOH programs in reproductive health, the response to HIV/AIDS, and malaria control… HAI works with the MOH to implement the nationally designed model of HIV care, and has supported the implementation of voluntary counseling and testing centers, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) PROGRAMS, and HIV treatment centers integrated into this public sector model of care. [publisher’s description]