Social acceptability of HIV screening among pregnant women

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a survey about risk perception, knowledge, and attitudes towards HIV infection among 397 pregnant women in France. The survey was carried out between December 1987 and March 1988 in two Paris-region maternity hospitals where HIV testing is routinely proposed during the first prenatal visit.

Uptake of HIV prenatal testing has been rapid in France: before coming to the maternity hospitals, 26.5% of women had already been tested. Social acceptability of testing is high, 68.8% of the sample even supporting mandatory prenatal HIV screening. Such acceptability appears to be based less on an in-depth knowledge about the risks of transmission from mother-to-fetus than on the general French context of free-of-charge mandatory prenatal care and on the potentially reassuring effect of a true negative test. Consensus about abortion for HIV-infected pregnant women is strong (80.1%) and is not influenced by religious beliefs, in contrast to attitudes toward abortion in the case of fetal handicaps. This social environment creates special difficulties for the management of the complex dilemmas regarding pregnancy and childbearing for HIV-infected women.