Factors associated with pregnancies among HIV infected women attending municipal and National Hospital in Dar es salaam.

BACKGROUND Preventing unintended pregnancy among HIV—positive women constitutes a critical and cost-effective approach to primary prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This is a global public health priority for addressing the desperate state of maternal and child health in HIV hyper-endemic settings. Over the past two decades, significant breakthroughs have occurred in the area of HIV and pregnancy, largely centered on the prevention of vertical transmission. However, there are other important factors to consider for an HIV—positive woman wanting to become pregnant, including the prevention of horizontal transmission between partners, the optimization of antiretroviral therapy (ART), including the discontinuation of potentially teratogenic drugs, and the promotion of a healthy pre—conception lifestyle to reduce maternal and fetal complications. __ OBJECTIVES. We ought to investigate factors associated with pregnancies and contraceptive practices among HIV positive women attending care and treatment center in Dar es Salaam Tanzania. Methodology `_We conducted a cross-sectional where by data was collected from 300 sexually active women (18-44 years), receiving highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) recruited from the Centre for treatment and care (CTC) Clinics at Mwananyamala, Amana and Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam Tanzania. The data was collected using questionnaire and they were cleared, categorized, and coded. They were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 16 whereby descriptive data was presented using frequency tables and graphs, Chi- square test was used to compare association between variables and P value of less than 0.05 was considered to be significant. Results Overall 36.33% (n=300) reported to be using contraception, where by most of the women 76(26%) were using condom, followed by 20 (6.7%) who were using pills and the least 3 (1%) were using loop (IUCD). The results shows that majority of participants 63 (21%) didn’t use contraceptives due to reasons like not having a partner (single, widow and divorced) and having irregular menses, followed by 62 (20.7%) who didn’t use because they intend to have a child and the least were 1 (0.3%) who didn’t use because they were inaccessible. Overall 22.3% (n= 300) conceived since they started highly active anti—retro viral treatment (l-IAART), the relative risk of conceiving for those not using contraceptives was 3 .269 times higher than those on contraceptives (P=0.00037). Of those who conceived while not on contraceptives 29.6% (n=54) planned to conceive. Conclusion Our study demonstrates that not using contraceptive is the major factor contributing to unintended pregnancy- Marriage was another factor which contributes to pregnancy among HIV infected women