Volunteers who are dedicated to hugging premature babies: “At first you are afraid, you feel incapable, you have to hold tiny beings”

2023-10-02 11:03:45

AMELIA ESPOSITO (CURIERE DELLA SERA)

Updated Monday, October 2, 2023 – 11:03

About 80 volunteers are dedicated to caring for premature babies whose parents often cannot care for them.

A premature baby in an incubator in a file image. KIKE PARANeonatology More and more premature babies: “It’s hard, because you think it’s not going to happen to you”

The protagonists of this story are very small. Sometimes they only weigh a few hundred grams. Like Alice, who weighed 660 grams at birth a month ago. Like Ousmane, who came into the world in July weighing 700 grams. The place they should be is his mother’s womb, But instead they remain in a heated, covered crib, where they try to grow and in some cases survive.

And to achieve this, they (also) need a lot of love. So there is Chiara approaching Ousmane’s crib, who is crying. She whispers sweet words to him, takes his little hand and caresses it. Then, again, she takes him in her arms and sings him a little song. And Ousmane is calming down. He opens his eyes and looks at her enthralled. They already know each other. They understand each other. Chiara is one of 80 volunteers of the Cucciolo di Bologna association who, in their free time, dedicate themselves to caring for premature babies hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care wards of the Sant’Orsola polyclinic.

Everybody has month from 18 to and some are already grandparents. Chiara is 25 years old and became a volunteer by vocation after passing a strict selection process that has to take into account the motivation and emotionality of the applicant. “I studied Primary Education, now I study Nursing. This is my place,” she says. Chiara is in charge of cuddling ten premature babies. The youngest she has cared for was only 24 weeks old. “It fit in my hand and then I went to her baptism. When I saw it again it was already that high,” she says, pointing to the height of the table with bright eyes.

Learn with babies

Virginia, 35 years old, is the mother of two children, the first of whom was born prematurely. “This is a place of suffering for mothers and fathers,” she says, “that’s why I wanted to come back, to help other parents.” While Salvatore, 49, came to Cucciolo through acquaintances and has never left.

“At first you are afraid, you feel incapable, you have to hold tiny beings, do delicate maneuvers. But then the children help you learn. And then the relationship becomes magical,” he explains. But they are not responsible for caring for all premature babies, only a few. Most of them have their parents -especially his mother- by his side every day. For weeks, sometimes months.

“The affection of parents is irreplaceable,” says Michela Mian, president of the association. “We don’t think about replacing them and we are happy when the babies don’t need emotional support,” she adds. But there are less fortunate children, like Ousmane. Her family lives in another city and her mother has three other children to take care of when her father is working. They come to visit him on weekends, but they can’t do more. And this is where Chiara and the other volunteers come into play.

There are parents who, for various reasons, cannot spend their days in the hospital. But also women who have become pregnant, given birth and then realized that they no longer wanted to be mothers. These last babies occupy a special place in the hearts of the volunteers, who care for them for a long time. Sometimes for months and months, until the juvenile court decides it is time to give them up for adoption. Or – as can happen with babies who are alone and have a disability – to transfer them to a specialized institution.

“For my baby it was like that,” says Salvatore. He calls her “my girl.” ly her partner Virginia They hugged her for months, until he left. “She was special,” says Salvatore, “she was born with very serious problems related to her disability, they thought she would not succeed.” But she moved forward like a true warrior. This is how Virginia describes her: “She raised her head, she ate a lot. She had no intention of dying.” Salvatore remembers a particularly emotional moment with “his little girl”: “The first time I took her out of the pavilion, into the garden with the stroller. It was spring and the meadowlarks had sprouted in the flower beds. I grabbed one and put it in her little hand. He squeezed it tightly, as if he understood the meaning of the gift he had received. A gesture that may seem obvious, but is not at all.”

Cribs like little spaceships

The neonatal intensive care unit It is the home of these babies. Cradles that look like small spaceships, illuminated with blue lights, with a thousand buttons and screens that constantly return information, numbers and curves, guard these little creatures. There is a girl in a flowered dress that would make you grimace.

Her chest sways up and down: she has learned to breathe on her own and will soon leave this room for the real one, her home, now far from Bologna. “Newborns come to Sant’Orsola from all over the region, but also from outside,” explains Corvaglia, “they bring us those who are born with serious pathologies, such as neurosurgery or cardiology, those who have been diagnosed in utero, for example. both are not only premature. The latter may be hospitalized from a few weeks to several months. It depends on the condition and weight.

“Severe premature babies are those born with less than a kilo,” continues Corvaglia, “we have about 25 a year.” “We are here for them,” says Mian, “but also for the parents, who in some ways can be more fragile than the children. It is not easy to live day and night taking turns in a hospital room, with the burden of anguish that that entails”.

The association also offers practical support to parents of babiespremature. And that is why today the non-profit organization launches its first campaign ‘#Insieme per i genitori della Terensiva Intensiva Neonatale’ on the Ideaginger.it platform. The objective is to raise funds to finance the free psychological clinic for mothers and fathers of premature babies.