Experiences of pregnant or lactating women living with HIV in a Mozambican context: an integrative review

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Know and document the experiences and main difficulties experienced by HIV-positive pregnant or lactating women. METHOD: integrative literature review searching for productions on the experiences and main difficulties women face with HIV/AIDS, pregnant or lactating in the BVS databases, CAPEs, and SciELO periodicals, carried out in March 2021. RESULTS: there were identified 256 types of research published in the period from 2016 to 2021. It is highlighted that of the 256, 70 are BVS’s researches, 181 are CAPES’s researches, and 5 are SciELO’s summaries; only 18 papers published in the past five years discussed the subject matter. CONCLUSION: The HIV positive pregnant or lactating women may experience psychic suffering characterized by the fear of infecting the children during pregnancy, on labor, or during breastfeeding; they also refer to be afraid of sharing the diagnosis of HIV-positive while pregnant or lactating to their family and friends to avoid the discrimination and stigmatization before the society that does not yet accept that HIV-positive women have the right to the motherhood.