Antenatal HIV screening, along with five other blood tests, is offered to all pregnant women as a routine part of their antenatal care.

Most women in New Zealand will not have HIV. Women who are found to have HIV can be offered treatment to reduce the chance that they will transmit the virus to the baby.

The number of people with HIV in NZ is low, but increasing. All pregnant women are offered an HIV test at the same time as they have their other pregnancy blood tests.

Babies can get HIV from their mothers before they are born or during labour and birth.  If you find out that you have HIV before your baby is born, you can have treatment that will probably prevent HIV being passed to your baby.

Treatment works well by reducing the risk of the baby getting HIV from 31.5 percent to less than 1 percent.

Don't be afraid to ask your midwife or doctor about testing for HIV in pregnancy.  It is normal for everyone to have the test.

Programme Aims:

This programme aims to ensure all women are offered HIV screening along with their first pregnancy blood tests, so that transmission of the virus from mother to baby can be prevented.