Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

FAMILY

15 practical tips for pregnancy in Italy

Being pregnant or a new parent while living in a foreign country comes with plenty of challenges. New mum Shirin Georgani shares her advice for making sure you get all the support you're entitled to in Italy.

Published: 25 September 2021 09:30 CEST
Updated: 27 September 2021 10:00 CEST
  1. Check your regional health authority’s website and look for the percorso di gravidanza (pregnancy pathway). Download any documents they have, or even apps.
  2. Register for a Fascicolo Sanitario Elettronico (online health record) if your health authority has one so that you can get all your blood results online – there will be a lot of blood and urine tests!
  3. Prepare to know and discuss your family history, including blood types for both you and partner.
  4. Register for a SPID so that you can apply for your Bonuses and Maternity Leave online without having to go to a Patronato.
  5. After your sixth month, apply for the Bonus Mamma Domani – make sure you ask your doctor at your check up at this time to complete the maternity certificate for you in advance – they should be able to log into the INPS website and do this at their clinic, you may or may not receive a copy. You may need this for your employer to request maternity leave too if applicable
  6. Sign up to the ASL’s (local health authority’s) antenatal course – it’s usually free and may be in person or online but either way is invaluable for knowing how things work at your local hospital/birth centre.
  7. Find Facebook groups for local mums if you can or want to.
  8. All your prescriptions, tests and specialist appointments are free if they relate to the pregnancy, so if you have any problems, concerns or ailments get them seen to.
  9. Ask for a translator early on if you think you’ll benefit from having one.
  10. Look on YouTube to see if your local hospital has an online tour of the labour ward.
  11. Prepare to discuss your birth plan only when your care is transferred to hospital (preso in carico).
  12. Prepare to be internally examined at every visit. On the plus side you also get the opportunity to see your baby as you get a scan at every appointment.
  13. Don’t be offended if you get sent to the dietitian when you’re pregnant – most mums are, they can be very helpful and non-judgemental and help design a healthy balanced diet for you during pregnancy. 
  14. Discuss Covid restrictions and pain relief options when you get transferred to hospital – each might be different so it’s better to ask them directly than guess. Gas and air isn’t provided in Italy, nor is a TENS machine or any injections. Epidurals are the main pain relief option: you need to be cleared by the head anesthetist whilst you’re still pregnant to determine if you’re eligible – this is usually just a questionnaire – if you don’t do this you won’t be able to get an epidural on the day, so better to be cleared for it even if you decide not to have it. Also, planned home births are very, very rare.
  15. Ask your AUSL, hospital or clinic what postnatal care is provided or what services you can request after your baby is born.

READ ALSO: ‘What it was like being pregnant during the pandemic in Italy’

Useful resources:

Shirin is a former civil servant turned English language teacher-food blogger from London. She currently lives in Ferrara, Italy with her husband and their baby boy. She can be contacted via her instagram page at @myimmigrantkitchen

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

OPINION AND ANALYSIS

OPINION: Family is sacrosanct to us Italians – even if it means you can’t get away

Foreigners living in Italy are often left baffled by how much 'la famiglia' is intrinsic to the Italian way of life. Silvia Marchetti explains why families in Italy "stick together like glue", even if it means your relatives are a constant presence in your life.

Published: 13 September 2024 16:24 CEST
Updated: 16 September 2024 12:17 CEST
OPINION: Family is sacrosanct to us Italians – even if it means you can't get away

Family in Italy is considered the building block of society, and it is sacrosanct.

Most Italians give so much importance to it that it is hard for some to believe. Family is far more important in Italy than in other European and western countries where I have lived such as the Netherlands or Switzerland. 

We tend to stick together like glue. 

Talking to several expat friends of mine, I realise this is something that often baffles many foreigners, who are used to leaving the family ‘nest’ at an early stage in life. And it’s not just an impression outsiders to Italian culture get by attending huge flashy weddings, religious celebrations such as baptisms, and birthdays, where family members come in dozens. 

La famiglia is our daily reality, for better or worse. 

I’ve had a hard time dealing with family myself. When I was a kid, until I started to say basta to my parents, each weekend and festivity was spent at my grandparents or with my cousins, uncles and aunts. We even all went skiing together or holidaying at our beach homes. My father and his brothers had bought attached studios so we could all always be together.

In Italy, no matter how old one gets, parents, siblings, relatives of all degrees and grandparents are always present. And sometimes, I think, they’re even too present and may tend to often ‘intrude’ in one’s private life. 

In Italy extended families are considered a blessing and youths can’t seem to leave their parents home until they’re very, very old (hence the denigratory term of ‘mammoni’, meaning ‘mama’s boy or girl’). 

Up until after the Second World War, when a new child was born, families in rural areas and on small islands would build an annexed dwelling so everyone could stick together in future. 

When I first visited the island of Ponza, off Rome’s coast, it struck me how huge cave labyrinths had been carved from cliffs into several annexed grotto homes for the entire extended family. 

One could think that it all comes down to a matter of religion: as the majority of Italians are Catholic, and also quite religious, the Church preaches the importance of family as both a key spiritual and material entity that accompanies people throughout their entire lives.

But that’s not enough to explain it. 

I believe the importance of family is part of a typical Italian lifestyle and mindset, a belief in certain values that having family is like an investment for the future, a safety net in hard times. 

READ ALSO: Why are Italians both so religious and so superstitious?

This traces its roots back centuries. Even though Italian society has always been officially patriarchal on the outside, with the husband-father who decided over the fate of everyone, in reality it was the woman (wife and mother) the lady of the household. Usually, kids tend to stick around their mums more than their dads. 

Across history, family members have always stood up for each other, both in aristocratic and poor families. 

It is crucial to keep in mind that we are a relatively young nation when compared to France and the UK. Italian national unity was reached only in 1861 and the Republic was created in 1946; up until then, Italy did not exist. 

It was a mosaic of bickering city-states and fiefdoms ruled by powerful aristocratic families who were constantly at war with each other. Family was the seat of power, and affiliation was more than just identity and belonging. It meant survival.

Likewise, peasants could solely rely on their own family members to survive, keep the harvests going and the land fertile. Each newborn was considered additional labour force to add to the family, a pair of ‘extra hands’ (as my granny would say) to plough, feed the animals and run the farm activities. 

When society went from rural to modern, and people started abandoning villages to move to larger towns and abroad, family was still seen as a pillar. Immigrant Italian families that have flourished across the world, building, for instance, ice cream and pizza empires that still survive to this day, are proof. 

“La famiglia è tutto” (family is everything) is my dad’s favourite motto. 

I believe that, no matter how Italian society will evolve in the near future, spending a lot of time with close family and extended family members will still be a common trait of most Italians. It’s innate.

SHOW COMMENTS