I have been passionate about HIV since the very beginning of the pandemic as I had two childhood friends with haemophilia. Both brothers died, the first of a mysterious infection in 1981 when I was a medical student and the second of AIDS just a few years before HAART became available. I helped set up multidisciplinary teamworking, guidelines and ethical services in the busiest HIV antenatal service in the UK in the 1990s, always trying to keep services personalized and evidence based as treatments and outcomes changed so dramatically over the decades.
I am convinced that pregnant women must be treated respectfully and protected from stigma, shame and abuse. Their human rights are so easily overwhelmed, even by the most well-intentioned of doctors. It is only by working ‘with’ women as equals that we get the best results ‘for’ women and their children. Peer support and advocacy go a long way in redressing power imbalances and empowering women living with HIV.