Today, giving birth to children is considered “a source of difficulties and problems,” lamented Pope Francis as he received in audience a group of Italian midwives and gynecologists this February 6, 2025. This audience — like the seven other appointments on the Pope's official agenda on Thursday morning — took place at his Santa Marta residence and not at the Apostolic Palace, as the 88-year-old pontiff has been suffering from another cold.
The Pope paid tribute to their “beautiful” profession, which he hailed as “a hymn to life.”
“In Italy, and in other countries too, enthusiasm for motherhood and fatherhood seems to have been lost,” the pontiff said, lamenting that giving birth is no longer seen as “a new horizon of creativity and happiness.”
Against this backdrop, Francis endorsed one of the objectives of these Calabrian caregivers: “to reverse the downward trend in births.”
The Argentine pontiff has often publicly expressed his concern about the sharp drop in the birth rate in Italy and in many other countries. Italy has one of the lowest fertility rates in Europe — 1.24 children per woman — and the aging of its population is accelerating: the average age was 46.4 in 2022, compared with 46.2 in 2021.
Path of lay holiness
In his address, the 266th Pope encouraged these midwives and gynecologists to continue cultivating “professionalism” which helps them to “carry out the best way possible the work of charity which is entrusted to them.” Indeed, “continuous improvement of your competencies is part not only of your ethical code, but also of a path of lay holiness. [...] The presence of prepared professionals brings serenity and, in the most serious situations, can save lives.”
He also encouraged them to cultivate “human sensitivity” towards their patients at the “crucial moment of existence like that of the birth of a son or daughter” when mothers can “feel vulnerable, fragile, and therefore in need of closeness, tenderness, and warmth.” And he urged them to be “sensitive and delicate” when caring for those in their care.
Francis also advised them to cultivate a life of prayer. “It’s a hidden but efficacious medicine that believers have at their disposal, because it cures the soul,” he told them. Sometimes, he added, they can pray together with their patients, while other times they will have to offer their prayers to God “with discretion and humility, in your own heart, respecting everyone’s creed and path.” But in any case, he said, prayer contributes to the collaboration between parents, nature, and God that brings a new human being into the world.
The meeting took place at the Casa Santa Marta, where Pope Francis resides, and not at the Apostolic Palace where he usually receives his official visits, the Holy See Press Office informed. This arrangement was made to protect the pontiff, who on Wednesday during the general audience confessed to suffering from a “bad cold.”
