Ndéye Astou found out about her HIV status at the birth of her second baby in 1998. “It was a total shock,” she recalls. A mother of four, Ndéye Astou is a strong advocate of reproductive health rights for women living with HIV. In West and Central Africa, the number of children born with the virus is disproportionately high, as women – fearing rejection – fail to partake in programs to prevent mother-to-child transmission.