Mother-to-Child

Mother to child transmission (also known as vertical transmission of HIV) is very rare in Australia.

There are a number of ways to minimise the risk of a baby acquiring HIV from their HIV-positive mother during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding. These include antiretroviral therapy to reduce the amount of virus in the mother’s blood (viral load), elective caesarean delivery of the baby and avoiding breastfeeding. Doing all these things can reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission to around 1 to 2 percent.

More information can be found on the Having Children page of this website, and at the Living Well website .