Interviews aimed to cover the following areas of experience:

The experience of receiving an HIV-positive diagnosis

The implications of being diagnosed while pregnant

Disclosure: who had been told and why/not; experiences of disclosure

How women believed that they had become HIV-positive and the meanings that These explanations had for them

Relationship to the father of the baby and the father's experience of parenthood

Conceptions of the future for themselves and their children

What motherhood meant to them

If this was their first child, what this meant to them. If a second or subsequent child, how they thought motherhood was similar to and/or different from their previous experiences

How they evaluated themselves as mothers

Hopes and fears about motherhood

Discussion about the pregnancy and/or the baby

Thoughts on breastfeeding

Implications of the delay in knowing the baby's status

Thoughts and feelings about the baby's status

Emotions, fantasies and dreams about HIV and motherhood

Experiences of coming to the clinic and seeing other HIV-positive mothers

Experiences of the perceptions of others (including other mothers and HIV-positive and -negative people)

Family background

Experience of the interview

Biographical and demographic information (age; employment status; living circumstances; time of diagnosis; partner status; number of other children; baby's status, if known) was elicited during the course of interviews at points appropriate to the discussion.