Pregnancy

The Wolverton Centre provides care for HIV positive pregnant women working closely with a specialist obstetrician (Miss Florence Wilcock), midwife (Balvinder Reehal) and paediatrician (Dr Sue Luck).

With specialised care we can reduce the risk of passing HIV on to your baby from 25% to less than 1%.

This involves:

• Taking antiretroviral medicines during pregnancy – usually from about 20 weeks until delivery (if you are not already taking them for your own health).
• Planning mode of delivery with the team – either a caesarean section or a vaginal delivery. A vaginal delivery may be possible if your HIV viral load is less than 50 copies per ml, you are on antiretroviral therapy and there are no obstetric problems.
• Not breast feeding – you will need to bottle feed your baby.

Paediatric services

HIV positive children are cared for by the specialised paediatric HIV services at St George’s Hospital, Tooting. Children will be seen and then referred by our local paediatric consultants either Dr Sue Luck or Dr Rowan Heath.