Pregnant HIV Positive Women

The purpose of BRIDGES (BReast and Infant feeding Doulas to address Gaps in Education and Support) is to develop, test and disseminate an HIV Doula education and support program to improve maternal/child health outcomes and reduce perinatal transmission.

Because pregnant women have been excluded from clinical research, including tuberculosis (TB) research, little is known about diagnosing, treating and preventing TB in pregnant women. We plan to perform a two-stage randomized trial that will identify best practices for screening pregnant and postpartum women for active TB (screening by symptoms vs. C-reactive protein levels) and the optimal timing of TPT initiation, relative to pregnancy (immediately during pregnancy or deferred to postpartum). Because undiagnosed TB among pregnant women with HIV is associated with many devastating complications to both the mother and fetus, this research has the potential to improve maternal and birth outcomes worldwide.