Maternal care to children born being exposed to HIV/aids

Abstract

This study aimed to assess maternal care delivery to children younger than six months exposed to HIV/aids aiming to decrease vertical transmission. Eighteen mothers were interviewed at a specialized outpatient clinic in Fortaleza, Brazil, in the second semester of 2007. It was an exploratory and descriptive study with a quantitative approach. The questions assessed health care recommendations from the perspective of vertical transmission prevention. None of the mothers had breastfed their children; 94.4% adequately offered Zidovudine® syrup; 27.8% had taken their children neither for follow-up at specialized services nor for specialized tests; 53.9% had attended medical appointments inappropriately; 55.6% of children had not re­ceived the prophylaxis for pneumonia and had not even received obligatory vaccines in time. All of the children had received artificial milk, with inadequate dilution, frequency and quantity, and incorrect complementary feeding. It is concluded that the care provided to the children exposed to HIV at birth is not fully in line with pre-established standards to reduce vertical transmission in Brazil.