IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v65y2007i2p274-283.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

"Life is still going on": Reproductive intentions among HIV-positive women and men in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Cooper, Diane
  • Harries, Jane
  • Myer, Landon
  • Orner, Phyllis
  • Bracken, Hillary

Abstract

This article reports on qualitative research investigating HIV positive individuals' reproductive intentions and their influencing factors in Cape Town, South Africa. In-depth interviews were held with 61 HIV positive women and men; at the time of interview, half had been receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART) for over 6 months and half were not receiving ART. Being HIV positive modified but did not remove reproductive desires, and diversity existed in reproductive intentions. Some HIV positive individuals wished to avoid pregnancy. Fears of partner and infant infection and having a previously infected baby were important factors deterring some individuals from considering having children. There was also strongly perceived community disapproval associated with HIV and reproduction. Strong desires to experience parenthood, mediated by prevailing social and cultural norms that encouraged childbearing in society more broadly, were reported by others. Motherhood was an important component of married women's identity and important for women's social status. Family, husbands' and societal expectations for childbearing were important influences on women's reproductive intentions, for some counterbalancing HIV as a factor discouraging reproduction. There was evidence that prevention of perinatal transmission programs in combination with ART may alter women and men's attitudes in favour of childbearing. Most HIV positive women had not discussed their reproductive desires and intentions with health care providers in HIV care or general health services because of anticipated negative reactions. The few who had done so perceived the counselling environment to be mostly unsupportive of open discussion on these issues. The findings highlight the need for explicit policies recognizing reproductive rights and choice. They support the need for health counselling and service interventions that advance safer and healthier reproductive options for HIV positive individuals in this region of the world which is experiencing a generalised and advanced HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Cooper, Diane & Harries, Jane & Myer, Landon & Orner, Phyllis & Bracken, Hillary, 2007. ""Life is still going on": Reproductive intentions among HIV-positive women and men in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 274-283, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:2:p:274-283
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(07)00145-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Doyal, Lesley & Anderson, Jane, 2005. "'My fear is to fall in love again...' How HIV-positive African women survive in London," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(8), pages 1729-1738, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yao Yao, 2022. "Fertility and HIV Risk in Africa," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 45, pages 109-133, July.
    2. Sarah R. Hayford & Victor Agadjanian, 2012. "From desires to behavior," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 26(20), pages 511-542.
    3. Nicholas Wilson, 2015. "Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Reproductive Behavior in Zambia," NBER Chapters, in: African Successes, Volume II: Human Capital, pages 59-83, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Yao, Yao, 2016. "Fertility and HIV risk in Africa," Working Paper Series 19501, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    5. Monica A. Magadi, 2021. "HIV and Unintended Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa: Multilevel Predictors of Mistimed and Unwanted Fertility Among HIV-Positive Women," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(5), pages 987-1024, October.
    6. Doyal, Lesley & Anderson, Jane & Paparini, Sara, 2009. "'You are not yourself': Exploring masculinities among heterosexual African men living with HIV in London," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 1901-1907, May.
    7. Xiang Yan & Jie Du & GuoPing Ji, 2021. "Prevalence and factors associated with fertility desire among people living with HIV: A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-21, March.
    8. Jean Digitale & Stephanie Psaki & Erica Soler-Hampejsek & Barbara S. Mensch, 2017. "Correlates of Contraceptive Use and Health Facility Choice among Young Women in Malawi," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 669(1), pages 93-124, January.
    9. Smith, Daniel Jordan & Mbakwem, Benjamin C., 2010. "Antiretroviral therapy and reproductive life projects: Mitigating the stigma of AIDS in Nigeria," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 345-352, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elzenir Pereira de Oliveira Almeida & Modesto Leite Rolim Neto, 2020. "The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement: A systematic review with meta-analysis," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(2), pages 198-209, March.
    2. Xiang Yan & Jie Du & GuoPing Ji, 2021. "Prevalence and factors associated with fertility desire among people living with HIV: A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-21, March.
    3. Leah East & Debra Jackson & Kath Peters & Louise O’Brien, 2010. "Disrupted sense of self: young women and sexually transmitted infections," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(13‐14), pages 1995-2003, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:2:p:274-283. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.