The Meloni Government creates a new profession: that of maternal assistant. While public opinion, including politicians, was busy discussing an advert from a well-known supermarket chain focusing on a little girl and her divorced parents, the centre-right executive decided to establish, starting from 2024 and with an allocation of include in the next budget law (which should be between 100 and 150 million), a new professional figure to support mothers who have just given birth.
How does it work
Already present in France and in the Nordic countries, which however have a welfare system different from ours, the maternal assistant has the task of accompanying and protecting mothers in the first six months of the child’s life with a direct personal relationship. The new professional figure, in fact, will not only answer the telephone or via video call, but will also go to the home of his client, where, for example, he will be able to explain how to swaddle the newborn, how to give him a bath and how to behave in the event that the child had hiccups or wouldn’t stop crying, preventing mothers from contacting or going to the pediatrician too often.
Who can do it
The basic idea is not only to support a mother immediately after giving birth, but also to intercept any inconveniences of mothers, such as post-partum depression, a disabling depressive state which, however, requires the help of professionals.
To be a maternal assistant, however, you will not need a degree: therefore it is not a healthcare figure, like the specialized ones of midwives, nurses or childcare workers. To undertake the new profession, all you need to do is follow a training course lasting six or nine months.
The Government’s objective is to have three maternal assistants for every 20 thousand inhabitants, with the number of mothers supported which will therefore vary depending on the territories. The operating methods have yet to be established and should be partly discussed with the Regions. The aim is to provide a service upon request of mothers lasting around twenty hours for the first three months, extendable up to a maximum of six months.
Reactions
There were various reactions to the news of the government project. The Pro Vita & Famiglia association welcomed the government’s decision: “The idea of professionalising figures who can concretely help first-time new parents with many new challenges and fragilities in an increasingly disintegrated social context seems excellent to us” , declared Maria Rachele Ruiu, national representative of the association. “For some time we have been recording a growing sense of loneliness and almost social abandonment, especially among new mothers, which often manifests itself already during pregnancy and which can even lead to preferring abortion to the birth of a child.”
PD deputy Ilenia Malavasi, however, commented on Not to mention the non-application of 194. But the Government finds 150 million for the maternal assistant. The “right” priorities.”
The reaction of the National Federation of Orders of the Midwifery Profession (Fnopo) was even harsher, as it wrote a letter to the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci: «Should the news be confirmed, while understanding the noble aim of wanting to guarantee help to mothers, we can only express our total disapproval together with our total disappointment on the issue.”
The letter continues: «Post-natal care to support the new mother represents the “heart” of the midwife’s activity who, by observing and promoting the physiology, knows how to promptly recognize the deviation and the appearance of pathological situations that can also request the intervention of other specialists”.
Fnopo places emphasis on the safety of new mothers: the expertise of the midwife who goes to the home, in fact, “can allow us to promptly recognize situations of domestic violence or psycho-social fragility and consequently activate adequate multi-professional paths”.
The Federation, therefore, expresses bewilderment and indignation at the fact “that the decision-maker could imagine being able to create new professional figures which, among other things, overlap in terms of skills with those already existing”.
The letter concludes as follows: «It is also considered necessary to underline that, if the news were confirmed, the gravity of the initiative in question would be amplified not only by the fact that it was not considered useful to consult the undersigned Federation beforehand but also by the fact that in In recent years, no steps have yet been taken to ensure that the presence of midwives for home visits during the puerperium is guaranteed throughout the national territory. It is absurd and unjustifiable that to date midwives are not explicitly foreseen in community homes and that the numerical standard of midwives necessary to guarantee a widespread presence in the territory is not respected in the slightest.”
Meanwhile, protests have mounted on social media from those who believe that, with the introduction of the maternal assistant, we will have “two women locked in the house for the price of one” as also underlined by the motherhood rights activist Francesca Bubba , which reminds us that a woman should also be supported during pregnancy or contraception, periods in which the woman is often alone.
And the fathers in all this? Not received. In the conception of the maternal assistant, in fact, there would seem to be no room for the idea that a man can also take care of a newborn. Or that a father may have more time available to spend with his loved ones. As? By increasing, for example, paternity protections. One wonders, therefore, whether this is not precisely the vision that the government has of the family, that is, mothers at home looking after their children and fathers working.
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