Deborah
Deborah (played by an actor) decided to breastfeed her new baby at the beginning but is now formula feeding with milk from the GP.
Deborah is Black African and is single, with two children, a 7-year-old child and an 11-month-old baby.
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Deborah found out that she was HIV positive in 2009 when she was in Southern Africa. She was not well at the time and went along for a checkup. She started medical care that same year.
Throughout her latest pregnancy and after having her new baby, Deborah was very careful about taking HIV medication but still had a mixed response from her doctors and nurses about her choice to breastfeed her child. She enjoyed breastfeeding but her HIV team told her, “Okay that is good, but if something goes wrong it’s your own fault because we told you.”
After two months of breastfeeding her baby, she got herself a formula milk prescription from the GP, which she can have for one year, collecting from a local chemist. A friend had trouble getting a prescription for formula milk but she herself had no problems, even for her first child, when she lived in another city, so she thinks it may be more of a GP knowledge issue.
Deborah says that no one in her personal life knows about her HIV status. The Covid-19 pandemic affected pre- and post-natal services for Deborah and also support group meetings were stopped. She also had to go into hospital alone and found the whole experience very stressful.
Deborah felt it was important to accept her HIV diagnosis (played by an actor).
Deborah felt it was important to accept her HIV diagnosis (played by an actor).
To be honest it was just, just not something I was expecting, I told myself that I can’t remove it. There’s nothing I can do. I have to accept myself.
Deborah felt like doctors didn’t want her to breastfeed even though she was following their instructions (played by an actor).
Deborah felt like doctors didn’t want her to breastfeed even though she was following their instructions (played by an actor).
It’s like I choose the wrong thing to do, it was not wrong to do, and I, you know when we’ve got children and we’ve got an appointment every month with the babies to see if they’ve got the virus. I mean I was breastfeeding and the baby was fine so what was the problem? Because to be honest I’m taking my tablets in time, I take my tablets I give baby the medicine, the way they said, I follow all the instructions, so what’s the problem there?