Prenatal Frailties: a Scientific and Communicative Challenge

What is it?

The Training Course of “Il Cuore in una Goccia” non-Foundation was born in the context of a cultural and educational commitment that is an integral part of our mission, in the awareness of the urgent need to create cultural bases that favor the proposal of welcome and defense of the nascent life.

The idea was to create a meeting for highly specialized training on an annual basis. The 2020 course is therefore only a stage of a more general project that aims to create a permanent training system that basically follows two training-application lines, one of a cultural-cognitive type and another of an experiential- witnesses type.

How does it help?

It facilitates the transition from information to knowledge and the acquisition of awareness on issues often subject to huge cultural contradictions. Information, in fact, is often superficial, while knowledge is based on the deepening, comparison, study and verification of data over time.

The concepts and topics that revolve around the themes of life require, by their nature and the human and ethical implications involved, a process of reflection and acquisition of knowledge; it is a matter of going in depth so as not to fall into wrong convictions and convey information that is false or too general, which, in this context, can result in enormous damage to families and unborn children.

Why is it important?

This type of training, based on scientific fundamentals, allows one to overcome ideological barriers. In particular, it allows one to acquire solid lay arguments that allow you to open dialogues, in the context of the protection of nascent life, with interlocutors of any cultural and religious background. All this to avoid prejudices, especially referring to a confessional affiliation, which can hinder the work of those who, lay and non-lay, are committed to defending life, especially the most fragile.

In this context, the proposal of the Perinatal Hospice model of the Gemelli Polyclinic within hospital structures, with particular reference to the Italian juridical normative system, highlights 4 fundamental aspects, of a purely secular nature, which can be proposed as a basis for any activity that has the ultimate goal of protecting life:

1) Contributes to preserving women from the heavy psychological repercussions resulting from eugenic abortion through assistance and support paths for women and families who, even in cases of pathological prenatal diagnosis, allow the child to be welcomed in complete serenity, because it does not interrupt parental planning.

2) Implements the provisions of law 194/78 (art.5) which provides for a series of obligations for health professionals, aimed at creating that “alternative” to the termination of pregnancy, almost never presented to the couple.

3) Pursues law 38/2010 concerning access to palliative care and pain alleviation even in the prenatal phase (prenatal palliative treatments in the fetus) in the context of invasive and non invasive fetal therapies.

4) Represents an element of justice and social equity by creating a system of equal opportunities for all those women who want to carry on pregnancy, even if marked by illness, in full respect of the rights of parents and the unborn child.

How did it start

Through a training path (the result of forty years of experience) and the proposal of an Integrated Perinatal Hospice model, based on a criterion of rationality that combines the reasons of scientific, ethical, legal reason on the one hand and responds to requests for assistance such as service to families on the psychosocial level on the other.

Benefits

This benefits the national and local levels because it improves the global preparation of the laity on the problems of nascent life and allows you to deal with complex issues by offering, also, experiential paths.

Means and funding

The course is organized and financed by the “Il Cuore in una Goccia” non-profit Foundation.

The “A. Gemelli” University Polyclinic Foundation I.R.C.C.S. – Rome participates in the initiative by providing logistical support.

The course allows, in Italy, doctors and health professionals (gynecologists, midwides, obstetricians, neonatologists, nurses, pediatricians, geneticists, psychologists, psychotherapists, pediatric surgeons, child neurosurgeons etc.) to obtain CME credits. For those who want to apply for credits there is a fee to be paid to the provider.

The categories that do not need CME credits (e.g. people interested in life issues, volunteers, family and health care workers, people with training responsibilities, families, etc.) access free of charge as listeners.

The launch of the initiative requires adequate publicity and dissemination via the web and social networks and a targeted invitation campaign. From a more properly pastoral aspect, for example, the involvement of entities and subjects such as: family and health pastoral care centres, seminaries, theological faculties and any figure who in turn holds roles of a formative nature in the context of the Church.

Learn more

By visiting the Foundation website www.ilcuoreinunagoccia.com

Countries involved

Currently the course (in its third edition) is available only in Italy.

How to start?

The correct and effective implementation of this initiative in other countries revolves, above all, around the subjects involved in the training activities and their attitudes. To this end, the following are necessary:

– Selection, for the purposes of carrying out the course, of expert speakers on issues related to the Perinatal Hospice (experts in prenatal diagnosis, fetal therapies, pre and post-natal palliative treatments, complex prenatal fetal diseases, clinical bioethics, etc.).

– Orientation, i.e. the way in which the experts involved use their specialized medical skills which should be addressed to the protection and care of the nascent life is fundamental.

– Method of presentation of the Hospice model, highlighting, in particular, the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach between the various competent experts, and between them and the families to support and accompany.