A “cold case” of neonatal death in Italy : a fulfilling prophecy or a lesson not learnt?

Abstract

In Italy, there was a recent great uproar in the aftermath of the tragedy of a 3 day-old newborn, who died in Pertini Hospital in Rome while rooming in and sleeping right next to the mother, and was reported by the media as having suffocated. While awaiting the legal verdict, the first reaction of mothers and clinicians has been addressed to the authorities in charge of maternity departments, where restrictions which issued during pandemic, have not yet been withdrawn. Only two years following our previous commentary (Giving birth and dying alone In Hospital during Covid -19 pandemic) we are once again compelled to address this very serious situation. In the meantime, there is surmounting evidence in the literature highlighting how the human major life events of birth (and death) in health systems have regressed to the previous standard of “dehumanizing” childbirth practices. This is aggravated by the budget cuts and dire shortage of healthcare workers, that has negatively impacted the effectiveness of healthcare services. The decline in healthcare systems is mainly reflected by the lack of adequate perinatal care due to the widespread elimination of most of the psychosocial and ethical achievements in perinatal care that had been developed and attained in the last 30 years.