A substantial minority of new mothers lack basic facts about the transmission of HIV from mother to child.

Since 1995 the US Public Health Service has recommended that all pregnant women be counseled about HIV infection and be offered voluntary HIV testing. To determine the extent of counseling and testing and how womens attitudes affect their willingness to be tested a cross-sectional study was conducted at seven hospitals in major cities in the US in 1997. A total of 1362 women from North Carolina Connecticut Florida and New York provided basic demographic data and information about the HIV counseling and testing services. Results show that 89% of the women said they received information about HIV/AIDS during prenatal care and 95% knew that pregnant women can transmit HIV to her unborn child. However much smaller proportions were aware that HIV can be passed to a child via breast milk (60%) and that medical treatment can prevent mother-to-child transmissions (51%). Many new mothers were reluctant to endorse legal requirements that pregnant women and newborns be tested for HIV. A sizable proportion believed either that the government is keeping the existence of a cure for AIDS from the general public or that HIV was developed in a laboratory expressly to harm people.