RESEARCH ARTICLE


The Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV/AIDS Transmission at Public Health Centers: A Phenomenology Study



Dhesi Ari Astuti1, *, Mohammad Hakimi2, Yayi Suryo Prabandari3, Ida Safitri Laksanawati4, Atik Triratnawati5
1 Faculty of Health Sciences, Universitas ‘Aisyiyah Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
3 Centre for Bio and Medical Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
4 Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
5 Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia


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Creative Commons License
© 2021 Astuti et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at Faculty of Health Sciences, Universitas ‘Aisyiyah Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia;
E-mail: dhesi@unisayogya.ac.id


Abstract

Objective:

Mothers with HIV are likely to transmit the virus to their babies during pregnancy, delivery, or through breastfeeding. According to studies, the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission among mothers that do not receive any form of treatment during pregnancy is approximately 15-45%. In Indonesia, the lack of a prevention program for HIV led to the provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). The policies, financial facilities, the healthcare system, and human resources, including health workers, are factors that influence the PMTCT. This research discusses the perceptions of several doctors and midwives regarding the prevention of mother-to-child transmission at public health centers. Furthermore, information regarding policies and implementation of the PMTCT program at public health centers in Yogyakarta was qualitatively collected through semi-structured interviews.

Methods:

This research involved 6 participants, comprising of 3 heads of public health centers and 3 midwives as the HIV/AIDS program managers. A total of 5 themes were selected for the interview, namely policies of mandatory HIV testing for pregnant mothers, inadequate knowledge of the virus, need for PMTCT training, infrastructure and facilities, and HIV retesting.

Results:

Pregnant mothers are at potential risk of exposing health workers to HIV. They are also prone to contracting the virus due to poor educational background and less exposure to health information. Therefore, midwives need Prongs 3 and 4 to avoid contracting the virus while assisting pregnant mothers. Presently, there is a shortage of health promotion media for PMTCT, which include both electronic and print educational media. Therefore, the implementation of HIV testing in Indonesia is mandatory for pregnant mothers at their first antenatal care (ANC). However, despite the importance of conducting this test before labor, there is no regulation to ensure its implementation.

Conclusion:

The success of HIV mitigation is closely associated with the participation of academicians, policymakers, and community networks in providing collaborative planning strategies for the reduction of its spread, and evaluation of the mitigation result.

Keywords: HIV, Mother-to-child transmission, Nursing, Pregnancy, HIV-testing, Antenatal care (ANC).