Pregnancy and HIV / AIDS

The best way to keep yourself and your baby healthy is to avoid getting AIDS in the first place. Risky behaviors, like drug use, having sex with a man who uses drugs, and prostitution can put a woman and her baby at risk for AIDS, drug addiction, and other diseases. A latex or slicone condom can help reduce the risk, but the best solution is to simply not have sex with someone if there's a chance he could be HIV positive.
The good news is a pregnant, HIV positive woman will not usually give her child the disease. There is a 75% chance that the child will be completely unaffected if the HIV-positive mother does nothing. The odds of having an uninfected child are less than 8% if the mother is treated with ZDV (AZT) during the pregnancy, and as low as 2% with HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy). For this reason it is recommended by the U.S. Public Health Service that all pregnant women avail themselves of an HIV test as soon as pregnancy is discovered.