Breastfeeding and HIV/AIDS
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Copyright © 2010 Demeter Press Individual copyright to their work is retained by the authors. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means vvithout permission in writing from the publisher. Published by: Demeter Press GIVING BREASTMILK 140 Holland Street West P. O. Box 13022 BODY ETHICS AND CONTEMPORARY Bradford, ON L3Z2Y5 Tel: (905) 775-5215 BREASTFEEDING PRACTICE Email: [email protected] Website: www.demeterpress.org Demeter Press logo based on Skulptur "Demeter" by Maria-Luise Bodirsky <www.keramik-atelier.bodirsky.edu> Edited by Rhonda Shaw and Alison Bartlett Cover Art: © Trustees of the British Museum. Used with permission. Cover DesignlInterior Design: Luciana Ricciutelli Printed and Bound in Canada Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Giving breastmilk : body ethics and contemporary breastfeeding practices / edited by Rhonda Shaw and Alison Bartlett. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-9866671-0-7 1. Breast milk. 2. Breastfeeding--Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Breastfeeding--Political aspects. I. Bartlett, Alison, 1961- II. Shaw, Rhonda RJ216.G59 2010 649'.33 C2010-904505-X DEMETER TORONTO, CANADA . Breastfeeding and HIV/AIDS Critical Gaps and Dangerous Intersections PENNY VAN ESTERIK HIS CHAPTER' EXPLORES THE role ofbreastfeeding and breastfeed . ing advocacy in the context of HIV/ AIDS. The transmission of HIV T through breastfeeding creates an excruciating dilemma for many mothers who are Hl'i positive. Often they are told to make a choice between. breastfeeding and replacement feeding with infant formula without receiving sufficient information on the least risky way to feed their infants. In other places, they are not given a choice. In contrast, transmission of HIV through breastmilk is a relatively minor concern for AIDS resear.chers considering the importance of other modes of transmission, the overall demands for more effective prevention, and better access to. treatment worldwide. However, the subject is of central importance t9 child feeding advocates who seek interventions to. prevent HIV transmission that de not alSo. undermine child feeding programmes. Many health professionals, social scientists and breastfeeding advocates have made direct contributions to research directed towards preventing and treating HIV/ AIDS. I have made no such contribution. I write from the edges of HIV/AIDS research, having been drawn to this work indirecdy in the context of other work, firSt in Thailand dealing with gender issues, and. second in relation to. international advocacy work en breastfeeding."I have worked at the edges, in the spaces between, in a few of the gaps. But perhaps by focusing on the gaps, the spaces between and the pieces that don't fit the HIV/AIDS paradigm, we can bring new. questions into focus. This chapter provides a personal response to attempts to understand HIV as a gendered public health issue by examining discourses surrounding breastfeeding and HIV/ AIDS at two conferences: the first, at York University, May; 2006 on Gender, Child Survival and H[V: from evidence to policy; and the second, the InternationalAIDS Conftrence (lAC) in Toronto, Canada, August, 2006. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the challenges of bridging the many divergent frames ·of reference exposed at these conferences~ in order·to create the possibility for an effective advocacy and policy response to breastfeeding and HIV/ AIDS. lSI WHAT WE KNOW (OR THINK WE KNOW) from not being breasrfed is greater than the risk presented by a HIV-positive mother's breastfeeding, then mothers are advised to exclusively breastfeed While epidemiological and biomedical research on the transmission of HIV their infants. through breastmilkand prevention-of-mother-to-child-transmission (PMTCT) Recent evidence has produced the surprising results that exclusive breastfeed is progressing, corresponding research on gender inequalities, embodiment, ing for three months led to the same transmission rates as exclusive replace stigma and contagion is less well developed, and less integrated into broader ment feeding (Coutsoudis, Pillay, Spooner, Kuhn, and Coovadia). In addition, discussions of maternal health and child survival. Since it was discovered that programs that inform women of the dangers of mixed feeding, prevent and breastmilk could transmit HIV (Ziegler, Cooper,Johnson & Gold, 1985), there treat potential breast problems such as cracked nipples, and advise the use of has been a concerted effort to discover the best infant feeding regime to keep condoms to prevent further infection during the period of lactation have been the babies of HIV-positive mothers heaJthy and free of the virus. Although effective at reducing the transmission rate (c£ UNKACES). we recognize the fact of HIV transmission through breastfeeding, the exact The dilemma for breastfeeding policy is that while we know that exclusive mechanisms are still unclear. breastfeeding is the single most effective intervention to prevent infant death To simplifjr the complex and ever-changing scientific evidence, it is often (c(Jones et al.) when there are no effective vaccines to prevent transmission difficult to identifjr the timing and source of transmission of HIV. Even if we of HIV or cure AIDS, what boosts immuniry and provides food security for could be sure whether the transmission was intrauterine, perinatal or postnatal infants-breastmilk-can also transmit HIV. While researchers are actively through breastfeeding, it is difficult to know if an infant is infected until they assessing the risk of transmission of HIV through breastfeeding, mothers and are about six weeks old. child feeding advocates are equally concerned about the long term survival and Many women and infants have received single dose nevirapine to prevent health of infants. These widely shared discourses around breastfeeding and transmission during labour and delivery. HAART reduces transmission through HIVI AIDS permeated both conferences and should have provided a common pregnancy, delivery and exclusive breastfeeding to around two percent. A child basis for discussion. breastfeeding from a woman who is HIV positive has abour a 14 percent risk· of infection when neither receives any antiretroviral therapy (ART). Consider THE YORK CONFERENCE a community with a 20 percent HIV infection rate; only three infants out of 100 are likely to be infected through breastfeeding, leaving 97 who would My experience of organizing and hosting a conference on Gender, Child Sur benefit from breastfeeding. The 2006 updated WHO policy on HIV and infant vival and HIVIAIDs: From Evidence to Policy, at York University (May 2006) feeding states: revealed mammoth disconnections betvveen how the infant feeing issue is framed in the global north and the global south. Sponsored by a number of Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for HIV -infected women for academic programs at York University, local NCOs, and the World Alliance the first six months of life unless replacement feeding is acceptable, for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), an international NCO based in Malaysia, feasible, affordable, sustainable, and safe for them and their infants the conference aimed to bring together academics, women's health activists, 1ilefore that time. When replacement feeding is acceptable, feasible, HIVI AIDS workers and breastfeeding advocates. I was the conference organizer, affordable, sustainable, and safe, avoidance of all breastfeeding by ably assisted by Francoise Guigne (who is currently completing Master's re HIV infected women is recommended. At six months, if replacement search on breastfeeding and HIV) .. feeding is still not acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable, and safe~ Our conference at York focussed not on all those affected by AIDS, but on continuation ofbreastfeeding with additional complementary foods women; and not all women> but on mothers bearing children. And we drew is recommended, while the mother and baby continue to be assessed. attention to a particular route of transmission: through breastfeeding, ~ather All breastfeeding should stop once a nutritionally adequate and safe than transmission during pregnancy or childbirth. We knew that the topic diet without breastmilk can be provided. (WHO) ~ould not be easy to talk about. There were conceptual difficulties, scien tific difficulties, political difficulties. and advocacy difficulties, to name a few. But because of difficulties surrounding both exclusive breastfeeding and Delegates had ample opportunity for participation, but we came from many exclusive replacement feeding, infants often receive mixed feeds, the option different worlds and brought many diverse perspectives to the discussion, most likely to kill babies, particularlyin the global south. However, replacement from local Canadian mother-to-mother support groups, to Christian NCOs feeding is assumed to be easier in the global porth where facilities for the safe working on AIDS education in African cities. Even Canadian and Ugandan use of replacement feeds are widespread. When the risk of an infant dying doctors participating in the conference worked in very different worlds. We 152 153 viewed the conference as an opportunity to bring these diverse perspectives advocacy pinned together with the gold bow of the breastfeeding mother and together for a critical examination ofbreastfeeding and the role of gender in . child.' We took these arguments to the male dominated HIV support gtoups health research,