ARQUATA SCRIVIA – A car instead of a delivery room, a midwife on video call and the support of a whole train for the new mother. Pink ribbon aboard a Frecciabianca on Monday, leaving Rome for Turin, to everyone’s surprise and joy.
Immediately after Genoa a woman, heavily pregnant, began having strong contractions. The train conductor, Loredana Ferreri, was notified immediately and she, along with the service manager, Andrea Luschi, worked hard to make the delivery go smoothly for mother and baby.
And so Isabella Carnero, a health worker at the Pisa hospital who was traveling on the train to Turin to visit her mother, called Daniela Sanfilippo, a fellow midwife at her home on a day off: “Hello Daniela, I’m in a train and there is a woman in labor, can you help me give birth?” she said at the Arquata Scrivia station in the province of Alessandria, where the convoy stopped extraordinarily for the delivery.
The idea of video calls has been successful. “The first thing I thought, when I answered the call, was a joke – says the obstetrician Daniela – then, when I realized that everything was true, I realized that the video call solution, proposed by Trenitalia employees, was the best”. The head of services to the frame with the task of making visible everything that was happening, the machinist to support the mother emotionally and effectively, the midwife to coordinate and the health worker to help manage the delivery.
“The Trenitalia staff was perfect, they collaborated in every maneuver, just like the travelers – says Isabella – the mother felt protected while giving birth to her second daughter. I also understood that all the stars had aligned when, asking for towels, an 86-year-old traveler opened her suitcase and gave them to me. They were scented, clean and even ironed. Something from another time.”
The emotion was almost indescribable for everyone, and not just for the mother. “It was a very special day at work and, obviously, unprecedented – says the conductor Ferreri – and everything went well. I am happy to have contributed to this beautiful moment. I have been working for Trenitalia since ’95, and this I think It will continue to be the most beautiful and adrenaline-filled day of my professional career.”
The baby was born around 12, in just 40 minutes of labor. Together with her mother of her foreign nationality, she was transported to the San Giacomo Hospital in Novi Ligure by Green Cross, she boarded the train after giving birth. The convoy, temporarily used as a delivery room, arrived in Turin thirty minutes after the scheduled time. A delay that no one has complained about, justified by a truly extraordinary reason.
