An HIV positive woman has caused controversy by saying it “wouldn’t be the end of the world” if she passed on the virus to her unborn child. She has been lambasted from all corners of the internet and labelled a poor mother before she’s even given birth.
This is her side of the story.
For Amanda Mammadova, being HIV positive has become a way of life. So much so that she believes if her child were to have it too, they would learn to live with it.
The 34-year-old is currently doing what most of us would consider ‘playing with fire’. She has had repeated unprotected sex with her husband in the hopes of getting pregnant– despite knowing doing so could result in the virus being passed on to her partner and unborn baby.
“It wouldn’t be the end of the world”.
The risks are small, but they are most certainly there. There’s a one in a hundred chance her baby will have HIV, even though Amanda takes her antiretroviral medication religiously.
For most people, that’s a risk too big to take on. Medical professionals generally advise women with HIV should undergo IVF to conceive rather than engage in any unprotected sex at all.
But for Amanda and her partner “there are risks with all pregnancies,” and this is just another parenting obstacle they may face. The couple already have a child who is virus free, and are optimistic their second pregnancy will be much the same.
Speaking to The Daily Mail Amanda revealed she was diagnosed with the virus in 2010 after going to a routine sexual health check-up. Upon hearing the news she was in disbelief: “I was in shock. I had a hundred questions in my head. Was I going to die? How long was I going to live? You just don’t know what’s going to happen.”