Across the world, childbearing among HIV-positive women is a socially controversial issue. This paper derives from a larger research project that investigated reproductive decisions among HIV-positive women in Quang Ninh, a northern province of Vietnam. The paper focuses on 13 women who had an abortion after being diagnosed as HIV-positive, exploring their reflections, concerns and dilemmas. The results show that the HIV-positive pregnant women sought to balance their desires for a child with their worries of being unable to fulfill their responsibilities as mothers. Even while strongly desiring to become mothers, women in this study opted to terminate their pregnancies out of fear that they could not care adequately for the child they expected. These results indicate that when providing reproductive health counselling and support for HIV-positive women and their families, it is essential to take into account the socio-cultural factors that shape women's reproductive options.

Women with HIV who want to have children face a range of challenges, quandaries, and hard decisions. This article examines the role of health staff in supporting HIV-infected pregnant women who desire to maintain their pregnancies. The article is derived from anthropological research conducted in Vietnam's Quang Ninh Province, an area that has a high HIV prevalence rate and is covered under the government's prevention of mother-to-child transmission program. The study included in-depth interviews with 23 HIV-infected women who had either recently given birth or were pregnant at the time of the research. Results showed that women were satisfied with the services they received from the program. The women believed that health care staff offered them not only medical care but also social and emotional support. The article concludes that the health care system is a vital point of support for pregnant women with HIV.

Summaryobjectives To explore the decision of induced abortion among HIV-positive women and examine how the decision is associated with socioeconomic characteristics and the availability of comprehensive programmes aiming at preventing mother to child transmission of HIV.methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in two provinces of Northern Vietnam. In all 707 HIV-positive women were recruited through collaboration with commune health centres and peer groups. Information was obtained on women's socioeconomic characteristics and pregnancy outcomes before and after HIV diagnosis. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated to measure the association between socioeconomic characteristics and induced abortion.

Abstractobjective To investigate contraceptive use among HIV-positive women in Ha long city and Cam Pha town of Quang Ninh, a Northern province of Vietnam.methods Cross-sectional questionnaire study among HIV-positive women identified through the district HIV ⁄ AIDS register. Information on socioeconomic characteristics and contraceptive use before and after HIV diagnosis was obtained through structured questionnaires. Chi-square testing was used to assess whether the included women differed from the target population in terms of age. Crude Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated to show the association between contraceptive use and the women's socioeconomic characteristics. Logistic regression analyses were applied to adjust for possible confounding. The women's contraceptive use before HIV testing and after HIV testing was described and compared by Chi-square testing, and the association between post-test counselling and the women's use of condom was assessed by ORs.