«Since I’ve been here we haven’t had such extreme cases linked to a disease like cancer, but there is no shortage of stories that question us», are the first words of Soemia Sibillo, director of the Cav Mangiagalli in Milan, one of the historic Life Help Centers, which we asked to help us understand how do they operate if a woman presents herself with a problem like that of the young Azzurra Carnelos (we wrote about it here), if there are any protocols that follow.
«There are no protocols. Every case, every woman has her own story. There are women who come to us even in the fifth month asking for help when a therapeutic abortion is recommended for probable malformations of the child they are carrying… but also mothers who in their third pregnancy tell us they want to leave the baby in hospital to give it up for adoption because they can’t afford a third child, as happened not so long ago. We always respect mothers’ choice» says Sibillo.
We help mothers find their own resources
Soemia Sibillo is then keen to underline an aspect of the activity of the Help for Life Centres: «We help mothers to bring out their own resources. They are the ones who choose. Often I find myself in front of women who have been belittled, they have been made to understand that they are not capable, that they have been made uncertain about themselves and their future. Our help is to bring out what is already inside them.”
«Of course, illness and cancer are borderline events, but in recent years I have seen how any problem, even a complex one, can be dealt with better if there is a help network, there are medical, economic and relational issues. It’s up to us to listen and help, then the choice is made by the mothers» concludes Sibillo.
In apertura photo by Michael Beginning on Unsplash