HIV and Perinatal Transmission: Preventing Perinatal HIV Transmission

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HIV can be passed to a baby during pregnancy, childbirth, and breast/chestfeeding. This is called perinatal transmission.
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If you are pregnant or planning to get pregnant, get tested for HIV as soon as possible. If you have HIV, the sooner you start treatment the better—for your health and your baby’s health, and to prevent transmitting HIV to your sex partner. If you don’t have HIV, but your partner does, ask your health care provider about medicine to prevent HIV, called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). You can also talk to your health care provider about timing sex without a condom to coincide with ovulation to reduce the chances of HIV transmission and increase the likelihood of getting pregnant.

The HHS Panel on Treatment of HIV During Pregnancy and Prevention of Perinatal Transmission has published recommendations on perinatal HIV prevention and offer additional information for health care providers of people with HIV who wish to breast/chestfeed.

What You Can Do If You Are Pregnant and Have HIV
Health care provider icon.

Visit your health care provider regularly.

Pill icon.

Take HIV treatment as prescribed to stay healthy, protect your partner, and protect your baby.

HIV treatment reduces the amount of HIV in the body (viral load) to a very low level. This is called viral suppression or an undetectable viral load.*

Getting and keeping an undetectable viral load is the best thing you can do to stay healthy and prevent transmission to your baby.

Less than one percent icon.

The risk of transmitting HIV to your baby can be 1% or less if you:

  • Take HIV treatment as prescribed throughout pregnancy and delivery.
  • Give HIV medicines to your baby for 2 to 6 weeks after birth.
Pregnant person icon.

If your HIV viral load is not low enough, a cesarean delivery can help prevent HIV transmission.

Baby bottle icon.

The only option that eliminates risk of postnatal transmission of HIV to the baby is infant formula or pasteurized donor human milk. The PROMISE Study showed that keeping an undetectable viral load through pregnancy, labor and delivery and breast/chestfeeding substantially reduces the risk of transmitting HIV through breast/chestfeeding to less than 1%.

If you have HIV, do not pre-chew food for your baby.

*Viral suppression is defined as having less than 200 copies of HIV per milliliter of blood. An undetectable viral load means having a viral load so low that a test can’t detect it. The benefits of having an undetectable viral load also apply to people who stay virally suppressed.

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People who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant should encourage their partners to also get tested for HIV. If either partner has HIV, that partner should take HIV treatment as prescribed to stay healthy and prevent transmission.

For babies with HIV, starting treatment early is important because the virus can progress quickly in children. Providing HIV treatment early can help children with HIV live longer, healthier lives.

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