Birth in the age of AIDS : women, reproduction, and HIV/AIDS in India / Cecilia Van Hollen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Van Hollen, Cecilia Coale.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

AIDS (Disease) in pregnancy--India.

AIDS (Disease)--Social aspects--India.

Childbirth--Social aspects--India.

HIV infections--Transmission--India--Prevention.

HIV-positive women--Services for--India.

Medical anthropology--India.

Pregnant women--Services for--India.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, c2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Birth in the Age of AIDS is a vivid and poignant portrayal of the experiences of HIV-positive women in India during pregnancy, birth, and motherhood at the beginning of the 21st century. The government of India, together with global health organizations, established an important public health initiative to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child. While this program, which targets poor women attending public maternity hospitals, has improved health outcomes for infants, it has resulted in sometimes devastatingly negative consequences for poor, young mothers because these women are being tested for HIV in far greater numbers than their male spouses and are often blamed for bringing this highly stigmatized disease into the family. Based on research conducted by the author in India, this book chronicles the experiences of women from the point of their decisions about whether to accept HIV testing, through their decisions about whether or not to continue with the birth if they test HIV-positive, their birthing experiences in hospitals, decisions and practices surrounding breast-feeding vs. bottle-feeding, and their hopes and fears for the future of their children.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Note on Statistics and Transliteration

Abbreviations

Prologue. Into the Well and Out Again

1. Birth in the Age of AIDS

2. India Responds to the Epidemic

3. “The HIV Test Is Like an Immunization”

4. “I Don’t Need My Husband’s Permission”

5. HIV/AIDS and the Gendering of Stigma

6. To Birth or Not to Birth?

7. HIV-Positive Women Give Birth

8. Breast or Bottle?

9. Creating a Storm

Epilogue. Memory Boxes

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804786140

0804786143

OCLC:

830161148