Pregnancy

[heretolearn]

I was diagnosed during pregnancy. I think I was infected 1-1.5 years before that. My numbers were really good and the viral load became undetectable in a short time.
It won't be long until the baby gets here and I am getting really nervous.
Is there anyone else here who was hiv+ during pregnancy? What were your numbers? What treatment did you have? How did the pregnancy go and was your child negative or positive? Do you have any advice?

[purposedwoman1980]

I had been positive for 7 years when I got pregnant...my numbers were great....I was undetectable...I went into labor and the doctors made me wait until they have given me 3 hours of HIV meds through an IV once my water broke..I had a c-section...my baby was born negative and has remained negative...for the first 10 days after his birth they gave him meds to build his immunity and ensure he stayed negative....now he is about to be 8 and he is healthy and happy....keep doing what the doctors say and everything will be ok...they will check your baby during the first year to make sure the baby remains negative...good luck to you

[heretolearn]

Thank you for your reply! I have been having an extremely hard time. I have no one to talk to about any of this. I just got out of the hospital where they messed up my treatment schedule by telling me it was ok to take my medicine early but luckily I immediately lost my breakfast and called the ID nurse. She was mad as a wet hen! Then they gave me a panic attack by sending me to labor and delivery because they said I had preeclampsia when really I just have hypertension and a kidney infection. They wouldn't give me any medicine for the freak out until I signed papers saying they could deliver the baby. I finally signed them because it was a nightmare and they gave me medicine. My blood pressure got nice and low and the tests came back  that morning that I didn't have preeclampsia and the baby wasn't stressed out. Also, they had been giving me the wrong antibiotic and it was making me vomit and running up my blood pressure. I spent the next day being left alone and feeling much better after they changed my meds. I think they all got in trouble because it is a teaching hospital. They finally let me leave after getting my second steroid shot for the baby's lungs. I am still pretty upset. They also told me that there is a 1 in 36 chance the baby has Down Syndrome (which is ok to me but sounds like it may be a challenge). If I can make it through this pregnancy and not infect the baby then I will be a happy mother.

[heretolearn]

I only have a few more weeks until the baby is born and I'm excited and scared.

The id nurse told me that she had never seen anyone diagnosed during pregnancy with such good numbers transmit to her baby and she said she had never seen anyone with the numbers I HAD transmit to their baby so I shouldn't worry because I'm undetectable. I have been praying for months.

I'm so afraid of the grief and guilt I would feel if I made my daughter sick. I can't help but love her. She is beautiful and feels so joyful in my tummy.

Just a little while longer

[delilah07]

Kind of excited here. I'm the only woman I know who has been + while pregnant. I became pregnant after learning of being +.
My viral load remained undetectable and my highest CD4 count was 1045 during my pregnancy. I had the healthiest pregnancy I could have had at the time.
I also ate so much. Honestly, I had an epidural. I delivered my daughter naturally. No C-Section. It was planned; my doctor wasn't available. In a way I was lucky because my daughter is eighteen and negative.
I'm definitely grateful to those doctors and the doctors I see now.

[yellabee3]

I hope all is well. I know where you are coming from with the worries while pregnant. It was a nightmare for me when I found out about my condition by my doctor in my second trimester in October 2014. I sent you a pm. I hope we can chat. Sometimes it helps to have a continuous conversation a person who is going through the same things.