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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

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For members

LEARNING ITALIAN

The key Italian vocabulary you’ll need for a doctor’s visit

Seeing a doctor can be a challenging experience if you’re new to the Italian healthcare system, but possibly even more so if your 'dottore' doesn't have a good command of English.

Published: 17 April 2024 12:16 CEST
The key Italian vocabulary you’ll need for a doctor’s visit

Seeing a doctor is usually seen as a fairly uncomplicated task but everything gets a little harder when you’re in a new country, and Italy is really no exception as its healthcare system can be fairly tricky to navigate at first.

Additionally, not all Italian doctors are competent and confident English speakers, which means that their vocabulary may not be enough to cover the full extent of medical terms and procedures involved in an ordinary visit and they may naturally switch to talking to you in their native tongue when asking questions or providing information. 

As such, having some handy vocabulary under your belt can be a big help when trying to bridge any language gaps during your first appointments.

Making an appointment

In order to get an appointment (visita) with a public general practitioner (medico di base), you must be registered with the Italian national healthcare system (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, or SSN) and hold an Italian health card (tessera sanitaria).

READ ALSO: Italian healthcare: Should you switch from public to private insurance?

Further, while in some countries you may call the local clinic (ambulatorio) and book an appointment with any doctor on duty, that is not how things usually work in Italy.

In order to see an Italian GP, you must be under the care of that particular doctor. Info on how to register with one of the professionals operating in the area covered by your local health authority (Azienda Sanitaria Locale, ASL) can be found here.

Doctor speaking on the phone

A doctor speaks on the phone while inside his office. Photo by Nicolas TUCAT / AFP

Once you’ve registered with a GP, you can go ahead and book your first appointment. You can generally do so via phone, email or, in some cases, online.

When booking by email or phone, you may be given an overview of the doctor’s office hours (orari di apertura) and asked what day (giorno) and time (ora) you’d like to schedule the appointment (fissare la visita). Should you need to reschedule the appointment later on, you could ask: Sarebbe possibile spostare la visita?

Remember: if you’re in need of an urgent appointment, you can ask to see a doctor from Italy’s Guardia Medica, a medical care centre that operates outside of GPs’ normal working hours and on weekends, or visit your local hospital’s ER (pronto soccorso).

Seeing your doctor

Though they provide patients with a set appointment time, Italian clinics tend to run a little late, so you may have to wait for your turn in the waiting room (sala d’attesa).

Also, new patients are usually handed a form (modulo) to fill out with general information about themselves and their overall health (stato di salute) just before their first appointment. 

Once you’re in their office (ufficio), your doctor (dottore for a man and dottoressa for a woman) will enquire about the reasons behind your visit. 

If you’re there for a routine checkup, you could say that you’re visiting for a simple controllo. But if you’re there for any type of health problem, you’ll likely be asked what your symptoms (sintomi) are. 

You may have fairly common symptoms – for instance, a cough (tosse), a sore throat (mal di gola), fever (febbre) or headache (mal di testa).

READ ALSO: Coughs, colds and flu: What to say and do if you fall sick in Italy

But if you don’t really know what you have or don’t exactly know how to describe it in Italian, don’t worry: you can just indicate where the pain is coming from by saying mi fa male followed by the part of your body that’s aching (stomach, or stomaco, abdomen, or addome, chest, or petto, etc.).

Doctor speaking with patient inside his office

A doctor speaks with one of his patients inside his office. Photo by PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP

At this point, your doctor may ask you further questions on the type of pain you’re feeling – for instance, whether you have a throbbing (pulsante) or stabbing (lancinante) pain – and ask you to lie down (stendersi) or sit (sedersi) on their table (lettino) to perform a physical examination. 

Among other things, the doctor might measure your heart rate (battito cardiaco) and blood pressure (pressione sanguigna), look in your throat or ears with a torch, or listen to your heart or lungs with a stethoscope (stetoscopio).

Further tests and medicines

Depending on the outcome of the physical examination, your doctor may refer you to a specialist for further diagnostic exams and tests (esami diagnostici), including blood tests (esami del sangue), an MRI scan (risonanza magnetica), an ultrasound (ecografia) or an ECG (elettrocardiogramma). 

But if the source and nature of your health problem is already clear to your doctor, you’ll likely be given a prescription (ricetta) for the purchase of medicines (medicine) as well as some instructions to follow to achieve full recovery (completa guarigione).

READ ALSO: Why are medicines so expensive in Italy?

Medicines may come in the form of powder (in polvere), tablets (pastiglie or compresse), drops (gocce) or syrup (sciroppo).

Remember: Italian doctors tend to have fairly bad handwriting (locals often jokingly refer to it as ‘hieroglyphs’), so make sure you know exactly what you need to get at the pharmacy (farmacia) as well as how many times a day (volte) you need to take each medicine. 

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