Perception and Barriers to Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic in Urban Maternity, Bauchi State, Nigeria

Abstract

Globally HIV pandemic remains an issue of major concern to the government, health practitioners, policymakers, and researchers. HIV can be transmitted from mother to child either during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or breastfeeding; presently developing countries including Nigeria accord importance to the prevention of mother to child transmission. Despite this effort and commitment to the provision of access to prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) drugs services in Nigeria, statistics have shown that annual HIV positive births are recorded in larger figures in Nigeria. On this basis, this study aimed to examine the perception of and barriers to prevention of HIV mother to child transmission (PMTCT) among antenatal mothers in urban maternities in Bauchi state, investigating the level of PMTCT services perception, establishing the extent to which PMTCT services are used, and barriers to the use of PMTCT services in the state. The study used a narrative approach and description applying percentages and frequencies using five-point Likert scales to get responses from the respondents. Data were collected and analyzed and the findings reveal a positive perception of prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV and that positive women are ready to take ARV drugs to end the pandemic. It also showed that 90% of the respondents had good knowledge of HIV transmission mechanisms. The PMTCT program revealed good knowledge of MTCT prevention. We recommend that regular assessment of the PMTCT program should be conducted for program sustainability and scale-up. HIV positive mothers should continue to receive ARV in pregnancy and the postpartum period, reinforce joint action of all stakeholders to reach those women who are positive to achieve the PMTCT national target and religious leaders should preach to their followers to voluntarily have HIV testing to know their status.