While an Italian woman thought she had contracted the flu, she ended up giving birth to her child, whose presence inside her womb was not known, at her home.
- Valentina, a 42-year-old Italian waitress, saw her belly swell several months ago. She thought it was related to a “possible gluten allergy.”
- In mid-January, the patient experienced nausea and vomiting, which were caused by the flu, according to a pharmacist.
- However, a few hours later, she gave birth to a little girl, who weighs three kilos and 350 grams and measures 51 centimeters, on her bed.
Giacomo Paoli, a 43-year-old pizza maker who lives in Badia Pozzeveri, a hamlet in the Lucca commune of Altopascio (Italy), still can’t believe it. On the night of Tuesday January 14 to Wednesday January 15, his wife, 42 years old, Valentina gave birth, for the first time, to a little girl, named Michela, when she did not know that she was expecting and was carrying a child. It has a name: denial of pregnancy. It is about the fact “to be pregnant without being aware of being pregnant. In this situation, the body does not show any of the usual signs of pregnancy leading the woman, but also those around her, to ignore it. There are two types of denial of pregnancy : ‘partial’ where the pregnancy is discovered after the first trimester of pregnancy but before the term and ‘total’ where it is only discovered at the time of delivery”, according to Lille University Hospital.
Swelling in the stomach linked to a “possible gluten allergy”
For the Italian waitress at pizzeria Fuori di Piazza, it all began “a few months ago”confided, to Corriere Fiorentinoher husband. One day, she felt a swelling in her stomach while she was working. “When consulting the doctor, we hypothesized a possible allergy to gluten, because the symptom appeared especially after Valentina ate products like bread and pasta. We decided to have them done, but for various reasons, these tests were postponed several times, so that nothing appeared suspicious to us, not even the absence of menstruation, Valentina having always had an often irregular cycle.
Denial of pregnancy: “This little body came out on its own, with the umbilical cord, without making a sound”
Finally, the exams in question could be scheduled for the end of January. However, on Monday January 13, the patient suffered from nausea and vomiting. Giacomo Paoli decides to go to the pharmacy to buy him some medicine. Arriving at the pharmacy, an expert reassures him after learning of Valentina’s symptoms. According to the pharmacist, “It’s the classic seasonal virus.” Once home, the pizza maker gives him the tablets. “Nothing happens. At one point she gets on the bed and tells me: it’s not a virus, I’m about to give birth,” says Giacomo Paoli, who sees his companion turn on her side and spread her legs, from which comes out a small head full of hair.
“Everything went black. For a moment I saw nothing, nor understood anything. This little body came out of itself, with the umbilical cord, without making a sound, so much so that for a moment I feared that “It’s not a dead fetus.” Terrified, he called for help before the little girl Michela, wrapped in a towel, cried out. When the ambulance arrives at their home, the child and his mother are taken to the hospital where several prenatal tests are carried out. The baby, who is doing well, weighs three kilos and 350 grams and measures 51 centimeters. “Others have months to get used to the idea of being fathers, that means I’m going to get a crash course. I went from knowing nothing to having a daughter in just one day,” declares, to The Nazionethe forty-year-old troubled by this event.
