Developing a Prevention Program

Collaborations

If you are developing a perinatal HIV prevention program, there are many existing resources that we encourage you to investigate. Many existing prevention and intervention programs have an interest in similar populations (pregnant women, infants, and their providers) and, with minimal changes, these programs can be adapted to serve perinatal HIV prevention aims as well. For example, consider the following potential collaborations:

Collaborate with MCH

• Increase proportion of women receiving PNC
• Promote access to contraceptive services to prevent unintended pregnancy
• Incorporate HIV testing messages in other communications with prenatal care providers

Collaborate with HIV Counseling and Testing

• Increase outreach to women of childbearing age
• Incorporate perinatal prevention messages in C&T literature

Collaborate with other HIV supportive services

• Promote HIV care services, especially among women of childbearing age
• Develop linkages between HIV care services and prenatal care services to ensure that women with HIV who become pregnant are rapidly referred to prenatal care.
• Ensure that HIV-infected pregnant women and HIV-exposed infants have rapid access to prophylactic drugs, through the state ADAP if necessary
• Promote communication between HIV care providers and prenatal/obstetric care providers

Work directly with hospitals

• Assess availability of rapid testing in labor and delivery units as a part of licensing and accreditation processes
• Assess offering of HIV testing in hospital-based prenatal care clinics as a part of licensing and accreditation processes

National Organizations

In addition to collaborations within your own state, CDC funds several national organizations to assist in prevention of perinatal HIV transmission throughout the United States. These organizations have broad expertise and a wide variety of materials and resources that may be useful for developing a perinatal prevention program. For example:

• A Legislative Toolkit designed for legislators to use when crafting new or revised perinatal HIV legislation.  Also valuable to public health professionals as you communicate with lawmakers about drafting and promoting perinatal HIV legislation. To receive a toolkit from ACOG, email your request, including mailing address, to Becky Carlson.
• Profiles of Perinatal HIV Prevention is a compendium of best practices from successful perinatal HIV prevention programs in urban communities. It is available for download on CityMatCH’s website.
• Action Learning Labs (ALL) were developed to assist state-level maternal and child health (MCH) programs develop and enhance their perinatal HIV prevention strategies. The ALLs promote collaboration so that diverse teams can learn from each other and establish partnerships that may result in enduring systems improvements.
• A survey of state MCH directors to assess their perinatal HIV prevention activities was conducted in 2004. For more information on the methodology and results of this survey, visit the AMCHP website.