AEGiS-14IAC: Mother to child transmission, believes or not, a research in psycho-sociology.

14th International AIDS Conference

Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

Mother to child transmission, believes or not, a research in psycho-sociology.

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. E11403)

Pittolo F, Cohen P, Soloman S, Venkatasubramanian G, Srikrishnan AK
French institute, Pondicherry, India

BACKGROUND: In India, the reported rate of Mother to Child Transmission ranges from 13 -60% It is posed to be a major pubic Health issue. At the same time socio-medical positions are not correlated and the strategies of preventions are problematic. OBJECTIVES: under a Indo-French research collaboration in anthropology and psycho-sociology this pycho-sociological study proposes to: -evaluate who are the actors involved in breast-feeding; - to assess positive mothers Risk Management, i.e. the factors acting in their choice from the cultural context to the socio-cognitive point of view. Conceptual references: Social Representations (S. Moscovici) via historicisation of AIDS, reduction of dissonance and change processes, the Identity Processes (W. Doise) via biographies.

METHODOLOGY: Qualitative, 25 Mothers ante/ post-natal Interviewed. Discourse analysis as dynamics of themas and scripts of Change/stability (F.Pittolo).

RESULTS: I. The SR and practices of breast-feeding in HIV context are related to (more stable) cultural elements (food, health, sexuality, motherhood, ...), they influence the biographical processes in terms of lost, shift, maintenance & creation of Identity. II. The mother's factors of choice are rooted in contradictions and so forth dissonant processes and feelings strongly influence them, like:- medical risk and aggravating factors vs stigmatization to exclusion, emotional choc, - multiple influencing persons (medical to in-laws) vs personal integrated choice,- "English medicine" concepts vs the high prevalence of believes (spirits, pollution, rituals, 'traditional medicines').

CONCLUSIONS: Dynamical links between SR and practices show: - resistance of change/changes/ possibilities, - strong redefinitions of roles and status in play appearing through an ethical crisis, - the need to consider the SR acting here with more respect to each context and to each step of prevention, i.e. in increasing the accuracy and opportunities of counseling supports.

Keywords: AEGIS, Mothers, Breast Feeding, Research, HIV Infections, HIV, Sex Behavior, Interviews, Mother-Child Relations, Sexuality, Prevalence, Demography, Data Collection, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Health Services Needs and Demand, India, Child, Human, transmission

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