I?m in a position in life right now where I’m living poor. At the moment, my lights are off, I have no way to get back and forth to the doctor, I haven?t been on meds since I gave birth to my daughter in march 2016, and it?s hard to find work where I live.
Jay MacGillivray and Mark Yudin’s talk, “Trauma-Aware Reproductive Care for Women Living with HIV & Those at Risk” explored how prenatal care is impacted by trauma; including insecure or unsafe housing, immigration status, gender-based violence, problematic substance use, severe mental illness and exploited sex work.
I want to do the right thing to. I’m only a kid and I can’t vote yet. But I can do other things. I have a mind and a voice. I can use it to help other people, just like I was helped. I want to be treated with respect and to have rights, and I want other people to have them too. We all deserve them.
Angela McGill is a woman living with HIV. She tells her story of discovering she had HIV and going on to have an HIV-free baby with the help of BAPAC (Bay Area Perinatal AIDS Center), now known as HIVE. Dr. Deb Cohan explains how it’s possible for women living with HIV to have natural births and not pass HIV on to their babies.
?I had a fear of being alone?The stigma was huge. I had more internal stigma than external stigma?I stayed out of relationships because I didn?t want to disclose.?