Obstetrical management

Antenatal care of the HIV positive pregnant woman will depend on the woman's risk of experiencing an adverse perinatal outcome. To an extent this will be mediated by other obstetric risk factors and antenatal care will need to be tailored to the individual woman. Consideration can be given to the assessment of fetal growth, whether by regular uterine fundal height measurements or, where available, by serial ultrasound assessments.

Invasive diagnostic procedures, such as chorion villus sampling, amniocentesis or cordocentesis should be avoided where possible, due to a possible risk of infection of the fetus³⁰². External cephalic version of a breech fetus may be associated with potential maternal-fetal circulation leaks and the advantages and disadvantages of the procedure should be very carefully considered.