New Report Highlights Mothers' Support Groups In Ethiopia

Ethiopia has the third highest rate of HIV infection in the world, and without preventive services more than a third of HIV-positive mothers will transmit the virus to their infants. Mothers’ Support Groups in Ethiopia: A Peer Support Model to Address the Needs of Women Living with HIV describes an approach developed by IntraHealth to reduce mother-to-child transmission by empowering HIV-positive mothers and mothers-to-be to make informed decisions about their reproductive health and the health of their babies.

The product of a successful knowledge-sharing partnership between IntraHealth and the groundbreaking mothers2mothers program in South Africa, the Mothers’ Support Group approach in Ethiopia is designed to address the special needs of pregnant and postpartum women who are living with HIV and caring for new babies and to help them navigate the health care system to access antenatal care and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV services.

Through USAID-funded projects, IntraHealth has worked to improve PMTCT services in Ethiopia since September 2003, and now supports PMTCT services in 248 public health centers in all nine regions of the country.