The extensive health care system in Hanoi reaches the commune level, but multisectoral and cross-programme collaboration to link the pillars of the World Health Organization's (WHO) comprehensive approach to PMTCT are weak [4] . For example, there is little collaboration between the programmes for HIV/AIDS and family planning. Our previous work suggested that a large number of HIV-infected pregnant women remain undetected by the health system [5] . In addition, a number of barriers result in failure to access PMTCT during pregnancy and delivery [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] . Among the weak points identified were that HIV-infected women received inadequate information about postnatal care, but even when they had knowledge, many expressed fear of stigma and discrimination that reduced their access to care; HIV testing is not available via health services at commune level, where many pregnant women go for care and delivery; and women feared lack of confidentiality of HIV test results [4, 12] .