Book Details

Birth in the Age of AIDS : Women, Reproduction, and HIV/AIDS in India

By CECILIA VAN HOLLEN (Author)

Price : ~~$30.00~~  $24.00
ISBN : 9780804784238
Page : 288
Year of Publication : 2013    Edition : 0
Publisher : STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Subject : SOCIOLOGY

mediamatics

Description :

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.

Cecilia Van Hollen is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.

Content :

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"Women's Views HIV/AIDS and Decisions About Prenatal Testing

5 HIV/AIDS and the Gendering of Stigma

6 To Birth or Not to Birth? Contraints and Pragmatics in HIV-Positive Women's Childbearing Decisions

7 HIV-Positive Women Give Birth: Deception and Determination