Objective: To understand the couple's perspective, the experience of prevention care against the vertical transmission of HIV.
Method: Heidegger's phenomenological research conducted with 14 participants, through interviews from December / 2011 to February / 2012 in a hospital in the countryside of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Analysis performed with Martin Heidegger's framework. RESULTS the being-couple unveiled the sense of fear, initially in the variation of dread when terrified due to the HIV infection discovery, and later in the horror variation when treatment was needed during gestation and finally in the terror variation when considering the chances of viral transmission to their child.
Conclusions: Health care attention that enables the couple to assume a leading role in the prophylaxis of vertical transmission is recommended, which will reflect positively on the health of pregnant women and in reducing neonatal and infant mortality as a result from AIDS.