Table 2 HIV infected pregnant and breastfeeding women’s experiences regarding barriers and facilitators of initiation and adherence to lifelong ART
Theme 1: ART Initiation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Sub-themes | Good ART adherers | Poor ART adherers | Delayed ART acceptors |
Women’s experience during ART initiation | -Started ART the same day they tested HIV +, with little effort on counselling and health education - | -Were supposed to start ART the same day they tested HIV+ | |
Facilitators for initiating ART | -Desire to have an HIV-free baby | -Receipt of HIV negative results/desire to have an HIV free baby | |
-Desire to remain healthy and live longer to be able to take care of their children | - | ||
-Fear to be recognized as a person living with HIV because of the emaciation | - | ||
-Health workers motivated | - | - | |
Barriers to ART initiation | -HIV –related stigma | ||
-Fear of domestic violence and being abandoned by the spouse | |||
-Fear of the big size of the tablets | |||
-Fear of the lengthy of the treatment (lifelong) | |||
- | -Fear of dying due to the belief that poor adherence to ART kills | ||
Theme 2: ART Adherence | |||
Sub-theme | |||
Level of adherence | -Self-drive to adhere to their ART medication -Experiencing moments of non-adherence due to missing doses or clinic appointments - | - Stopped taking ART for some time | - |
Facilitators to ART adherence | -Family support, especially from the spouse | - Family support | - |
-Peer support by attending family support groups (FSGs) | |||
-Receipt of HIV negative results for the baby | |||
Barriers to ART adherence | -Failure to disclose to spouse | ||
-Drug related factors.i.e., size and the side effects | |||
-HIV-related stigma | |||
-Forgetting to take their medication | |||
-Travelling away from home | |||
-Lack of transport to travel to the health facility to pick drugs | |||
- | -Lack of counselling and health education about the treatment | ||