Mama Knows is an informational campaign to increase the treatment adherence among mothers living with HIV after they give birth.
Anna Ivanova, Project Coordinator: “During pregnancy, to take care of their future child, women take their prescribed medicine and follow all the doctor’s recommendations, but after the child is born, they stop taking ARVT. EVA’s counselors often face such situations. There can be many reasons for stopping treatment – lack of time (this is especially true when there is one AIDS Center for the entire region and a trip to pick up one’s pills can take a whole day), inadequate information (our clients say that sometimes doctors simply do not offer women to continue treatment), different dependencies and negative treatment by specialists to clients, which can impact dependency, postpartum depression, or if one’s family is unaware of one’s status.”
Project objectives
1. Improve women living with HIV’s level of knowledge on the opportunities to continue taking ARVT after childbirth.
2. Inform specialists and activists about the importance of discussing the option to continue taking ARVT after childbirth with pregnant women living with HIV.
3. Increase the knowledge of the existing barriers for women to continue ARVT after childbirth among major mass media outlets.
Main steps
1. Collect and publish on social media personal stories of women living with HIV who have small children about the relationship with doctors and life hacks to treatment adherence after childbirth as well as the role of loved ones in supporting women (search for the hashtag #мамавкурсе on Вконтакте, facebook, and Instagram).
2. Collaborate with mass media outlets: prepare and send press releases, collect and edit personal stories, prepare the stars of the stories. The following publications were sent as part of the project:
EVA Association Launched an Information Campaign – Mama Knows
Mama Knows. National Campaign to Increase Treatment Adherence Among Mothers with HIV
Mama Knows: EVA Launched a Campaign to Increase Treatment Adherence Among Women After Childbirth
Motherhood Impacted my Organization in Taking Medication: Monologues of Mom’s with HIV
The EVA Association Developed a Medical Journal for Women with HIV
The EVA Association Prepared a Patient Journal for Women with HIV
3. Conduct 4 webinars (in Russian) for doctors and activists on adherence after childbirth and the particularities of counseling pregnant women on this issue and providing social support.
Working with HIV Denialists and Support for Mothers with HIV in Doubt
Visiting to the Gynecologist for Pregnant Women with HIV
Visiting the Pediatrician for Moms with HIV
The Legal Basis for Providing Medicine to Pregnant Women and Mothers with HIV
4. Video series (in Russian) “On the Way About What’s Important”: how to speak with a doctor about continuing treatment after childbirth; how to write a statement to continue ARVT after childbirth, how to manage taking care of an infant while taking care of one’s own health, how to return back to treatment if you have had a gap.
Questions for the Gynecologist from Pregnant Women with HIV
Access to ARVT After Childbirth. Personal Experience