Maternity Waiting Home Use by HIV-positive Pregnant Women in Zambia: Opportunity for Improved Prevention of Maternal to Child Transmission of HIV

Authors

  • Rachael Bonawitz, MD Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, 801 Massachusetts Avenue, Crosstown Center 3rd Floor, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Drexel University College of Medicine, 160 East Erie Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • Kathleen Lucy McGlasson, MPH Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, 801 Massachusetts Avenue, Crosstown Center 3rd Floor, Boston, MA, USA
  • Jeanette L. Kaiser, MPH Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, 801 Massachusetts Avenue, Crosstown Center 3rd Floor, Boston, MA, USA
  • Thandiwe Ngoma, MPH Right to Care, 11059, Off Brentwood Road Mikwala House, Longacres, Lusaka, ZAMBIA
  • Jody Lori, PhD, MS Center for Global Affairs & PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center, University of Michigan School of Nursing, 426 N Ingalls St, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
  • Carol Boyd, PhD, MSN Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health, University of Michigan School of Nursing, 426 N Ingalls St, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
  • Godfrey Biemba, MD National Health Research Authority, University Teaching Hospital Pediatric Centre of Excellence, P.O. Box 30075, Lusaka, ZAMBIA
  • Davidson H. Hamer, MD Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, 801 Massachusetts Avenue, Crosstown Center 3rd Floor, Boston, MA, USA; Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, 1 Boston Medical Center Place, Boston, MA, USA
  • Nancy A. Scott, DrPH, MPH Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, 801 Massachusetts Avenue, Crosstown Center 3rd Floor, Boston, MA, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21106/ijma.267

Abstract

Background: Maternity waiting homes (MWHs), defined as residential lodging near health facilities, are an intervention to improve access to maternal care recommended by the World Health Organization. Little is known about utilization of MWHs by HIV-positive women. This paper describes: 1) maternal awareness and utilization of MWHs in rural Zambia among HIV-positive women, and 2) health outcomes for HIVpositive women and their infants with regards to utilization of MWHs.

Methods: Data were collected from recently delivered women (delivered after 35 weeks in the previous 12 months) living >9.5 km from 40 health facilities in rural Zambia. For our analysis, primary outcomes were compared between self-identified HIV-positive and HIV-negative women in the sample. Primary outcomes include: 1) awareness of MWHs and 2) utilization of MWHs. We summarized simple descriptive statistics, stratified by maternal self-reported HIV status. We conducted bivariate analyses using chi-square tests, t-tests and Wilcoxon rank sum test.

Results: Among 2,381 women, 50 (2.4%) self-identified as HIV-positive. HIV-positive women were older and had more pregnancies and children than HIV-negative women (p<0.001). There was no difference in awareness of MWHs, but HIV-positive women were more likely to use a MWH than HIV-negative women. There was no difference in receipt of infant antiretroviral prophylaxis between women who did or did not stay at a MWH.

Conclusion and Global Health Implications: Though HIV prevalence in this sample was lower than expected, MWHs may represent a useful strategy to improve prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in high prevalence, low-resource settings.

Key words: • Maternity waiting homes • HIV • PMTCT • Zambia

 

Copyright © 2019 Bonawitz et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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Vol. 8 No. 1

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