Awareness and Perception of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV among Pregnant Women of North India

There has been an alarming increase in the number of HIV positive children in recent years as the number of HIV positive women has increased. More than 90% of HIV infections in children aged <15 years are due to mother-tochild transmission.

To evaluate the awareness and perception of mother-to-child transmission of HIV among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic in a tertiary care institute of northern India.

A valued and standardised questionnaire was interviewer administered to primigravida pregnant women at the time of their antenatal booking, prior to being counselled for HIV/AIDS.

The majority (79%) of the respondents were aware of HIV/AIDS. The main sources of information included posters/billboards (36.71%), television (90.51%) and newspapers (42.41%). Educational status and occupation had significant association with awareness regarding HIV/AIDS. Although only 39.87% of women were aware of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, but those who were aware, were also aware about routes of transmission and methods to prevent transmission. Caesarian section was perceived to be a route of transmission by 85.71% and only 4.76% perceived it to be a method of preventing mother-to-child transmission.