 Short courses of drugs can be given to HIV-infected pregnant women to reduce the chance of HIV infection being passed to her child either during pregnancy or during the labour process. However, children can also become infected by drinking the mothers breastmilk which contains the HIV virus. In many poor, developing countries in Africa, breastfeeding is the normal way of infant feeding and is vitally important because of the protection it gives to children from other diseases such as diarrhoea and malnutrition. Ideally there would be a way to make breastfeeding safer from HIV transmission without losing its other advantages. 