How Can the Experiences of Black Women Living With HIV Inform Equitable and Respectful Reproductive Health Care Delivery?

Abstract

Black women living with HIV (BWLWH) contend with injuries of injustice, which manifest in restricted reproductive autonomy and decision-making power in social and medical settings. Mitigating threats to reproductive autonomy calls for innovations that consider patients' needs and offer insights on how historically situated marginalization influences today's institutional, political, and economic systems and shapes reproductive decision making. In addition to cross-disciplinary expertise and collaboration, integrating structural competency into reproductive health care requires demonstrating respect for the autonomy, lived experiences, and preferences of BWLWH.

Factors and Priorities Influencing Satisfaction with Care among Women Living with HIV in Canada: A Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping Study

“…Gender, socioeconomic, and racial inequities intersect to inform patient healthcare needs and interactions with healthcare providers. These inequities also give rise to gaps in research on the care priorities of women living with HIV [ 50 ]. Given the prevalence of intersectional stigma in women’s experiences navigating HIV healthcare, [ 10 , 11 , 51 ] healthcare must go beyond service provision.…”

Policy Challenges and Resiliency Related to Ending the HIV Epidemic in the Southern and Rural United States: A Call to Action

“…The effect of these policies is compounded in the Southern United States, where racism, reproductive health, and HIV intersect. Fifty-five percent of Black women living with HIV reside in the Southern United States in communities with historical unethical and detrimental practices, policies, and attitudes toward the autonomy and reproductive health of Black women (CDC, 2021a; Fletcher et al, 2021). These factors combine with poverty and structural racism, resulting in poor access to HIV treatment, HIV-related stigma and discrimination, and medical mistrust (Ingram et al, 2019).…”

The Black women first initiative: using implementation science to examine bundled interventions to improve care and treatment coordination for Black women with HIV

“…Addressing these challenges to HIV care and treatment requires multilevel interventions that center the preferences and lived experiences of Black women with HIV [ 11 , 12 , 16 ]. However, there are limited studies of evidence based culturally relevant interventions for Black women with HIV to improve viral suppression and engagement in care [ 11 ].…”

“…However, there are limited studies of evidence based culturally relevant interventions for Black women with HIV to improve viral suppression and engagement in care [ 11 ]. Emerging strategies include the use of motivational interviewing techniques to support adherence to care and peers as members of the care team to encourage linkage and retention in care [ 16 – 18 ]. Recent studies show Black women with HIV employing resilience-based strategies, such as building supportive communities through children, grandmothers, peers/friends as coping strategies to face the adversities of stigma and discrimination and to promote health behaviors [ 19 – 21 ].…”