ANGE
A positive HIV diagnosis has a profound impact on many aspects of women’s lives, including their parenting:
“And then on the Friday, um, we went up to Royal Perth Hospital, and the men in the white coats delivered um, firstly they, they delivered my daughters’, diagnosis, and they told me that she was negative. And then they told me that I was positive. And the very first thing that I said, and I remember it very clearly, was that she’ll be all alone. And so this image of a child sitting on a bed, by themselves, really spoke to me about that stuff. Um, and that’s what all of my, all of my thoughts and, and feelings, and pretty much everything that motivated me was that she would be on her own if I died soon. So, my parenting style changed about making her highly independent. Um, I kind of vetted all my friends as to who would be suitable to look after her and all that sort of stuff. Cos it was, as you say Kath, it was all about death and dying, we were all going to die.”
