Attitudes toward health-care, HIV infection, and perinatal transmission interventions in a cohort of inner-city, pregnant women

The objective of this article is to explore attitudes of an inner-city, pregnant cohort about general and HIV-related prenatal care. Responses to an interview at initial prenatal care enrollment were compared using Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests. Of 75 women, drug users (51%) were more likely to say that they would defer initiating prenatal care (P=0.03) and to minimize the risk of drug or alcohol use to the fetus (P=0.04). Most (85%) viewed pregnancy as inappropriate for HIV infected women and primarily drug users (P=0.06) would abort if HIV infected. Over half thought HIV transmission occurred most times or always. Only 20% had heard of a drug to reduce this risk, but 95% would take such a therapy. These inner-city, pregnant women disapproved of pregnancy if HIV infected and thought the risk of transmission was high. They knew little of how to reduce this risk but nearly all would accept a drug to prevent transmission.