HIV and Pregnancy
Does Living With HIV Mean Giving Up On Becoming A Parent?
If you're living with HIV and interested in finding someone special and staring a family, one of the biggest dilemmas you will face is what to do when you want to have a child. HIV and pregnancy can happen safely. Just because you are infected with this virus does not mean that you have to deprive yourself of various joys of life, one of which is parenthood. You still have the ability to have children and can easily do so as long as you follow a certain treatment and behavior protocol to protect your child.
You certainly won't have a problem finding a compatible partner because there are plenty of HIV dating sites that help positive singles get in touch with others. Getting pregnant is a different matter entirely and it is usually fraught with anxiety even if the people concerned do not have HIV. You can however be certain that advances in HIV treatment have made it possible for you to have uneventful pregnancies and healthy children. Of course, you'll need to prepare yourself fully so that you do all the right things.
At the very outset, you need to protect yourself from the psychological damage that can be caused by other people's negative reaction to your decision to have a baby. You are perfectly within your rights to have a child. As long as you do the right things the chance of your child being infected with the disease is less than 2 percent. Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions surrounding HIV positive dating and pregnancy. You need to ensure that the conception is absolutely safe, for which you might have to resort to artificial means. If one partner is HIV negative and the other one is positive then the healthy one might rightfully be reluctant to engage in unprotected sex.
You'll need to take your doctor into confidence before getting pregnant. As the mother-to-be, your doctor will prescribe a course of anti-HIV drugs for you so that your child is protected from the virus. It is recommended that you deliver the baby surgically rather than naturally in order to prevent the baby getting in contact with infected blood. Your doctor will also give your child a course of anti-HIV drugs. You should also restrict yourself from breastfeeding your child no matter how badly you want to do it. Your doctor, nurse or midwife will also need to take the necessary precautions so that they do not get infected inadvertently during the course of the delivery.
HIV positive dating and pregnancy will enable you to lead as complete and fulfilling a life as possible as long as you take the necessary precautions. There are many medications available today that will enable you to live for very long. In fact, the days of fearing HIV/AIDS are long gone since medical science has made impressive advances against this virus. Many people who suffer from this disease actually compare it to other long term conditions like diabetes or heart disease that require careful monitoring and treatment. Your family unit will soon be indistinguishable from any of the others around you.
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