HIV+ and BF/ formula in the UK

[thegauntlet]

Hi, doing some looking into WHO guidelines etc.

'when suitable, sustainable, AFFORDABLE, safe, accessible and feasible alternatives are available women are encouraged to avoid breastfeeding. '

So... for HIV positive women in the UK, who cant afford to buy formula... do they get prescription formula? or vouchers? Ie for mums who have no benefits due to asylum application/ refugeee status..
If not... do LLL or and BF counsellors have experience in supporting HIV positive mums to EBF? Has anyone done this?

they may qualify for healthy start vouchers which can be used for formula milk

I thought that mothers on benefits sometimes qualified for milk vouchers anyway but I may be wrong.

The thing is Healthy Start vouchers don't cover all the formula needed to feed a baby without watering it down/reheating leftovers/very early weaning or possibly the worst option mum partly bfing to make up the shortfall. If you can't afford to fund the shortfall then bfing is probably the safest option as you would be given anti-retrovirals etc to keep the HIV in check as much as possible

There was a case a few years back in Yarl's Wood (the detainee/deportaton centre) of a bfing mum being forced to ff even though she was going to be deported to her country of origin in Africa where ffing wouldn't be suitable, sustainable, affordable, safe accessible or feasible for her or her baby. Mothers being deported are supposed to be treated as though they are already in the country they are being deported to. This means they are able to bf in the UK even if they wouldn't be advised to if they were staying.

Plus Yarl's Wood had vile ff preparation, IIRC mothers were given one jug a day of formula and keep it in their room (no fridge) and decant in to a bottle as and when baby needed it I don't think it was even made with 70C water...

So even in Yarl's Wood ffing wasn't safe, suitable or feasible!!

Grim. Why do the rest of us have safe prep rules pushed at us but people in centres like that have to put up with such awful treatment? Inequality is alove and well.

thanks for the conversation on this. That detention centre sounds horrendous; especially when you think these women are coming to our country usually as a last resort for safety and to escape unspeakable circumstances...

I was just wondering if you know if healthy start vouchers are available for those without 'indefinite leave to remain' and therefore no recourse to public funds...

Interesting comment about antiretrovirals. Anyone know if there is a standard plan for giving nursing mothers antiretrovirals in the UK? Struggling to find anything on NHS/ NICE guidelines.

theguanlet - the woman behind the Yarl's Wood debacle becoming well known wrote as 'One of Those Women'. Her blog post on HIV/AIDS & bfing is here.

More posts on bfing & HIV and the Yarl's Wood 'issue' here, here and here

There was a case of an HIV+ mum who was able to get some donor milk for a while. I think she BF for about 4 weeks then used the donor milk to wean onto formula (the moment EBF stops from the mother it's far more risky for the mother to continue to BF at all).

Of course, WHO guidelines are neither UK law nor NICE guidelines.