The programme to provide prophylaxis to prevent the transmission of the HI-virus from
mother to child in the Kavango-region, Namibia, has not been very successful. Up till now
the scant research done on this issue has focused mainly on service provision and the roll-out
of the Programme for the prevention of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV (PMTCT). This
study focuses on socio-cultural issues, which affect Kavango women’s decision to participate
in the PMTCT programme. It investigates the treatment methods used by HIV-positive
pregnant women for themselves and their unborn babies, neonatally, during pregnancy and
after delivery, particularly in relation to the prevention of transmission of HIV. The thesis
further investigates whether women choose alternative services such as traditional healers for
medical attention during pregnancy, birth and post-natally. The research aims to establish and
describe the role of local notions and practices concerning anti-retrovirals on the
aforementioned programme. Ethnographic and thus qualitative research methods were used
to gather and analyze data. I spent three months working as a nurse in two health facilities
that offer PMTCT in Rundu, Kavango. I also held semi-structured and open-ended
interviews, formal and informal discussions, formal and informal focus groups with nurses,
community counselors, pregnant women, women who had recently given birth in the health
care facility and traditional health care practitioners. In the case of the latter, I utilized
narratives of healing to understand their perception of HIV/AIDS, their beliefs and practices
as well as their healing methods. Furthermore, I employed other informal conversations
outside the formal research participants. The study shows that there is a paucity of partner
involvement and in some cases women have to first seek permission from their partner before
enrolling into the programme. My research findings further indicate that women utilized
various traditional herbal medicines for themselves and their babies as part of their cultural
beliefs and practices. It was evident that some of these, such as Likuki, affect women’s
participation in and adherence to the protocols of the PMTCT programme. The study
attempts to establish which factors influence the above women’s choices of care. In
particular, the research investigates what cultural (including social, gendered, political and
economic) interpretations of PMTCT affect the low uptake of the PMTCT programme by
HIV positive pregnant women in Kavango.