Friday, September 11, 2009

What I want to do, My interest, and a trip to the HIV clinic :-)

I am majoring in Biology and minoring in Chemistry and Music. I want to deliver babies (obstetrician) and that's the main reason I decided to take this course. I think that it should be a requirement because I will be monitoring women's pregnancies from conception to birth to a little bit after. I know that I'll encounter women who are HIV positive and who will be concerned about their babies and dealing with their pregnancy and HIV. I want to be able to give them answers and educate them more about if they don't know everything about the disease.

My interest is HIV in mother's and the transmission of the disease from mothers to their babies. I want to understand whether or not every mother who has HIV is guaranteed to give it to their baby or if they even have the option of breast-feeding their children.

When I went to the HIV clinic with my roommate the first thing I noticed is the wall full of different HIV magazines and a little bowl full of condoms. So I was immediately happy. I love free stuff, I mean what college student doesn't so I grabbed a copy of every magazine on the wall and took my seat next to a family of hispanic women who decided to make it a girls day and all go get tested for HIV, at least that's what I picked up from the light spanish that I was speaking to the youngest girl. I found out later that she spoke english...there were 3 men working at the time and all of them were very nice. They asked some questions, personal questions but they made it fun so there wasn't any awkward tension that you usually get when talking about personal stuff. There's this kinda hard scrub that you have to put in your mouth for about 3-5 minutes it has a salty taste to it but it goes away after the first minute or two. Then they just talk to you and make sure you know how HIV is spread and how to have safer sex. So I go back on the 18th to get my results so...I cant wait :-).
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2 comments:

  1. Allison WashingtonSeptember 11, 2009 at 6:42 PM

    I too am interesting in becoming an Obstetrician. I believe reading your blog each week will provide me with enlightment and information on HIV in mothers. I think it will be interesting to see if each mother with HIV will definitely pass the virus to their unborn child. I am pretty sure I do know the answer to that question, but it will be very good to read the actual article that answers this question. So, I really look forward to this information.

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  2. TeachUCFSeptember 11, 2009 at 10:24 PM

    Great choice, Megan. You might want to start with the CDC to see what they say about transmission from mother to child. You can post it under your Did You Know column. Then we can all watch as you find out more interesting things about your topic.

    So now the wait begins. It will be interesting to see if you play the what if game.

    Remember you can add pictures to this blog along with all those words.

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