The mission of the Targeted Outreach for Pregnant Women Act (TOPWA) is to decrease the number of women and babies who contract HIV. TOPWA was begun in 1999 and continues its goal of assisting under-served women in accessing prenatal care, substance abuse treatment, and other services. Over the past 10 years, TOPWA has been the cornerstone of the perinatal prevention program in Florida. While there are many programs to serve the needs of pregnant women who seek care, TOPWA is unique in that it employs outreach workers who go into neighborhoods and public venues to enroll women who are pregnant and have not accessed care. These are the women who often fall through the cracks of the service delivery system. Since its inception, TOPWA has enrolled 32,134 pregnant women. The program was retooled in 2008 to focus more attention on HIV-infected pregnant women. Even though fewer at-risk women were screened, there was an increase in pregnant women served. The total number of babies born HIV infected decreased from 37 in 2001 to 9 in 2008.
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