Saw this post and wanted to respond.  I did a paper in a class two years
ago on HIV and bf so I know this subject, albeit two year old
information.  My paper was titled "Should a woman who is HIV positive
breastfeed?"  At the time I wrote the paper, I was pregnant and so I
tried to put myself into a person who is HIV pos. shoes and think about
what I would do...as you have probably heard, there has been some
research that shows HIV can be transmitted by breast milk but the data is
iffy and there are very very few cases that actually point to breast milk
as the cause, if any.  This has led some researchers to believe that
breast milk may be like saliva in that the HIV virus is not actually
transmitted via saliva.  So, in other words, transmission via breast milk
is still a guessing game.  However, the hard part comes in when you
realize that babies born to HIV pos. mothers will test positive even if
later they will actually seroconvert to negative and that can take as
long as 15 months!!!!  So, some women who are HIV pos. have to wait to
find out if the baby is actually HIV pos.  If the baby IS truly HIV pos.
fro the pregnancy, then breastmilk has been shown to delay the onset of
AIDS making bfeeding beneficial.  This may have been discussed on Lactnet
before and if so, I apologize for the review.  The WHO/CDC guidelines
state (or they did, 2 years ago) that formula feeding is recommended in
areas with an adequate water supply and breastfeeding is recommended in
areas with an inadequate water supply, because the risk of dying from GI
infections is greater than the actual transmission of the HIV virus.

When I understood all this, I decided I would like to say I would bf.  I
am a firm believer in breastfeeding, and would like to believe I would
always breastfeed.  But, to be honest, I can't say what I would do.  I
know this doesn't help you, but I thought the info might.

On Fri, 2 Feb 1996, Diane Wiessinger wrote:

> Just curious:
>
> Suppose you're 30 weeks pregnant, and you learn that a blood test from
> last year showed you to be HIV+.  (That is, your health is good, but
> you've been HIV+ for some time;  this is not a new infection.)
>
> Would you (not a client - *you*) breastfeed?  Why or why not?
>
> Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY
>