Shifiona N, Shapumba G, Ndjadila O; International Conference on AIDS (15th : 2004 : Bangkok, Thailand).
Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16; 15: abstract no. WePeD6447.
University of Namibia, Oshakati, Namibia
Issues: Namibia's pilot PMTCT protocol, based on UNAIDS/UNICEF/WHO guidelines, promotes exclusive breast feeding for 4-6 months followed by rapid weaning, and accompanied by abstinence or the use of condoms for women who are HIV positive during both pregnancy and breastfeeding. Within the context of Oshakati however traditional norms encourage two years of breast feeding, with the decision to wean the child being the prerogative of the father, or, in his absence, the maternal grandparents. Traditional norms also conflict with the recommendation of abstinence, while gender dynamics make the women's insistence on condom use near impossible. Description: This poster, based on seven months of qualitative research, looks at the three variables that most impact on the effects produced by the PMTCT protocol: firstly, the effect of the drought in the region on women's belief in the sufficiency of their breast milk; secondly, the traditional generational and gender power dynamics that remove these decisions from the women's personal ambit; and thirdly, at traditional beliefs about the necessity of sex during both pregnancy and breast feeding for the good of the baby in a context in which men refuse to use condoms. Lessons learned: PMTCT interventions must be considered within the broader social world its intended beneficiaries inhabit, as the effects on the ground are the complex products of the many ways in which the PMTCT message is offset by the local reality. Recommendations: PMTCT thus needs to be brought into dialogue with the context of its implementation in an ongoing manner, and this type of research is vital in that process as it allows access to both the production of meaning and the realities that shape it.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Breast Feeding
- Child
- Fathers
- Female
- Health Planning Guidelines
- Humans
- Infant
- Infant Food
- Infant Nutrition Physiology
- Male
- Milk, Human
- Mothers
- Namibia
- Pregnancy
- Research
- United Nations
- Weaning
Other ID:
UI: 102284362
From Meeting Abstracts