Sexual behaviour of pregnant mothers living with HIV/AIDS in Enugu, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND

More than 80% of pregnant women world wide remain sexually active during pregnancy. Majority of them experience reduction in sexuality especially as the pregnancy progresses. Medical staff should play a more proactive role in providing information on sexuality to HIV positive pregnant women.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate sexualbehavior and activity in HIV positive pregnant women and their sources of information.

METHOD

This was a cross-sectional study recruiting ninety six HIV positive pregnant women who attended Prevention of maternal to child transmission clinic (PMTCT) of University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu south east Nigeria from June to August 2007. Data was collected on age, parity, educational qualification and their sexual behavioral changes in pregnancy before and after diagnosis of HIV infection and their sources of information concerning sexuality in pregnancy.

RESULT

Sixty (62.5%) of the pregnant women reported an overall decrease in sexual desire during pregnancy since the diagnoses of HIV in pregnancy. Seventy-eight (81.2%) reported decrease of sexual frequency. Twenty-one (21.9%) had stopped any form of sexual intercourse in the present pregnancy since they were diagnosed HIV positive. Majority of the women (94.6%) practiced vaginal intercourse both during and after the diagnosis of HIV. The majority ( 60%) use condom for sexual intercourse after the diagnoses of HIV in pregnancy as against 51.2% before the diagnoses of the disease. 69.8% of the women did not know the effect of unprotected sexual intercourse with HIV positive partner on maternal to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV. Most of the women (56.3%) got their information on sexual behavior in pregnancy from doctors and other medical staff. 76% believed that these sexual behavioral changes should be discussed with their doctors but only 47.9% had already discussed this with doctors. They want the health workers to initiate discussion on sexuality.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest a decrease in sexuality during pregnancy in HIV positive pregnant women. However some of the pregnant mothers stopped any form of sexual activity as soon as they were diagnosed HIV positive. The majority had started using condom to decrease the transmission of the virus. The health workers should encourage complete fulfillment of safe sexual activity during pregnancy in mothers living with human immunodeficiency virus and AIDS