Traditional birth attendants in developing countries cannot be expected to carry out HIV/AIDS prevention and...

Pregnancy and birth, fertility and fertility regulation are all greatly affected by the exigencies of HIV and AIDS, and vice versa. Women and infants can only benefit if the respective policymakers, researchers and service providers in sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS, particularly those involved in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, gain greater knowledge of each others' expertise and seek to integrate the best of both into the care they each offer. The growth in access to antiretroviral treatment for mothers as well as infants, including during pregnancy and the breastfeeding period, makes such efforts even more timely and crucial. Yet there are worrying signs that specialists in both camps are making inappropriate policy and service delivery recommendations based on too little knowledge of each others' patches. As an example of this problem, this article discusses and rejects a recommendation in a recent BMJ article that traditional birth attendants could be trained to carry out HIV prevention and possibly provide HIV tests and drugs for prevention of HIV transmission during home deliveries in developing countries.