Marseille 2007
Marseille 2007
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Abstract #456  -  Being a mother and HIV positive : an ethnographic perspective on changing child care in Burkina Faso
Session:
  6.81: Posters A (Poster) on Monday   in  Chaired by
Authors:
  Presenting Author:   Ms Hejoaka Fabienne - UMR 145 - IRD, France
 
  Additional Authors:   
Aim:
Experiences of HIV positive women in Africa are mainly understood as related to PMTCT. However, these women also manage, in spite of disease and treatment needs, to educate their children and provide them with home care, particularly when they are themselves living with HIV. This study presents an ethnographic account of the way in which living with HIV infection and related treatments impact on mother/child relationships.
 
Method / Issue:
The study was completed through participant observation in a community-based organization in Burkina Faso, West Africa, and through semi-structured interviews with 30 HIV positive women, mothers of children living or not with HIV.
 
Results / Comments:
In a context where living with HIV still carries stigma, this study shows that care provided to HIV+ children often initiates a shift in social and cultural practices within the family in which old women play a central role in child care. This distancing from close relatives is motivated by the womens wish to maintain their own as well as their childrens serological status secret. Women also tend to keep distance from health recommendations provided by the extended family, in order to limit interferences between biomedical prescriptions and home practices regarding breastfeeding, infant feeding and care. In some case, mother/child relationship is also impacted by the disclosure of their status to HIV infected children. Children age, social isolation and adherence to treatment motivate this voluntary mothers disclosure.
 
Discussion:
The ethnographic data show a progressive transformation in family life leading to a reorganization of daily and professional activities, parallel to womens participation in activities of the community-based association. Important aspects of this transformation are the disclosure of serological status to a third person who appears to be indispensable for infant care, the involvement of other siblings in treatment offering, and the development of new social links within community organizations, counterbalancing the tendency towards reduced family interactions for care
 
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