Ch-ch-ch-changes

If you had a memory that managed to go back to the time when you were in your mother's womb, maybe you would be able to recall moments when your mum was particularly sad, upset (yeah, that happens quite a few times, thanks to the hormone-coktail produced during pregnancy) or happy. I doubt that I will be different from the rest of you, but if I could remember something from my staying here, the memories of today would be filled with a pleasant nostalgia. My mother is so happy that I can almost feel how much lighter her steps are and how the happy-hormones that she is producing are affecting also my state of mind!

I feel lighter than in in the pseudo-weightlessness of the swimming-pool and sweeter than after my mum has eaten one of those delicious chocolates! I feel like inventing new movements to my amniotic rhumba!
The picture of me here on the side was taken some weeks ago, and you can see that I'm smiling! If my mum had had the chance to have another ultrasound today, I would have smiled even more to the camera :)

So what is the cause of all this you may ask?
There has been a (small) revolution in Italy!
The italian society is becoming more modern than it was only a couple of years ago and years of of my mum's (and her collegues) lamental have resulted to be based on wrong facts..or, better to say, while they were busy complaining, the law was changed and the basis for their complaining disappeared! What is strange is that the law was changed without anyone around my mum noticing -else they would have celebrated with spumante and some sweets, I guess. Maybe the state just didn't want people to know about the changes...!
Anyway, my mum is happy that the law was changed, and happy that she discovered the changes. So she's happy twice -if that's possible.
So what is this law? Well, in Italy, until very recently, only workers with permanent jobs had the rights to have maternity leave, while those, like my mum, that have renewable contracts had almost no rights at all, and therefore, no maternity leave! Simple...but not so fair. To make the situation clearer: those with permanent job, not only recieve a higher pay as compared to those with temporary contracts, but they also have a job that is almost life-time guaranteed and have all the possible benefits -whereas the low-payed temporary poverini like my mum had no benefits. Not even the rights to unemployment-benefits in case their temporary contract was not renewed one day! Huh...! I hope that when I grow up, things will have changed...alot!
But, when I came into the picture, my mum decided to check on internet if something had escaped her notice about the lack of maternity leave for people like her...and what-do-you-know. She found out that in 2004, the law was changed! Now, even the socalled CoCoCo -like my mum, have the rights to 5 months maternity leave. She found this out already some months ago, but yesterday she went to the institute where they handle these things to confirm what she had found on internet, and to present her own case...and it appears to be right!!!! Yabbadabbadoooo...!
My mum has chosen to be careful, and celebrate only when she has the check in her hand (that way she can celebrate with me also, for you can only ask for the maternity-payment after the child is born), but the fact that this really seems to be true makes her infinately happy. Of course it's not the same as the 44 weeks+10 weeks maternity +paternity leave that one of her best friends (who is also expecting a small viking) is getting in Norway, but compared to nothing, it's a victory !!!