PREGNANCY EXPERIENCE AND OUTCOME: A COMPARISON BETWEEN HIV POSITIVE AND HIV NEGATIVE PREGNANT WOMEN
Isah HO, Musa O, Evbuomwan VA, Attah BE, Ogu IA, David AE
Department of Community Medicine and Primary Health Care, Bingham University, New Karu, Nasarawa State, Nigeria
Afr. J Pharm Res Dev; Volume 10(1): 37-42; June/July 2018
ABSTRACT
Irrespective of the health status of a woman, the advent of pregnancy is associated with varying forms of symptoms and discomforts, with varying degrees of impact on the health of the mother or baby. With inter-current medical condition such as HIV infection, with its pan-systemic involvement, effect on well-being of a pregnant woman and her fetus can be predictably deleterious, due to lowered immune profile from decline in CD4 profile. This has potential of undermining pregnancy experience and outcome. Even the administration of antiretroviral drugs has the potential of similarly influencing pregnancy experience and outcome, through its associated untoward effects. In spite of the benefit of anti-retroviral drugs, the presence of the virus still has the potential of negatively impacting on the health of pregnant mothers and her babies, necessitating the need to sustain an increased monitoring of pregnant mothers and their fetuses in utero. This review draws attention to this, seeking to engender the needed increased attention on all HIV positive pregnant mothers with a view at ensuring and assisting them to weather through the storm of HIV infection in pregnancy and ensuring appreciable pregnancy experience and fetal outcome. This study, a retrospective review of a cohort of 243 pregnant women comprising of HIV positive and HIV negative mothers who had ANC and delivered between July 2014 and June 2015 in Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria, seeks to compare their pregnancy experience and outcome using their weight performance and their babies’ birth weights. The mean booking weight (69.36±11.72) of HIV positive pregnant mothers and that of their HIV negative counterparts (74.46±13.69) were significantly different (pV = 0.0398). The differences between the two groups remained significant throughout their pregnancy period with the HIV infected group posting lower weight profile, despite their sustained appreciable weight increase over the period of pregnancy. The mean birth weights of babies of both groups, (HIV positive mothers = 3.17±0.43) and (HIV negative mothers = 3.41±0.46) were similarly different significantly (pV = 0.0050). Thus, HIV positive mothers and their exposed babies were found to lag behind in terms of pregnancy experience and outcome indicating deleterious effect and impact of HIV infection on pregnancy experience and outcome, even with the provision of PMTCT services which include the provision of vital anti-retroviral drugs. In recognition of this, effort is recommended to be enhanced and sustained to ensure that all women found HIV positive are provided relevant services to ameliorate impact of the virus on pregnant mothers and their babies.
KEYWORDS: HIV Infection, Pregnancy Experience and Outcome
Email of correspondence: harounisah@yahoo.co.uk