There's still just over a month to go until the end of the year, but the data isn't encouraging. From January to today, only 191 newborns have been registered in Quartu, as there's no birth center in the city, meaning they're all born in Cagliari. From January to December 2025, there were 229, already down from the previous year when there were 278 newborns.

Compare this to the death toll: 632 this year and 682 the year before. Bringing a child into the world in times of crisis and uncertainty is increasingly becoming a decision to be carefully considered, and many are choosing not to.

Those who decide to start a family, however, do so with great sacrifices and challenges. Manola Marcia, who had a child after 18 years of marriage, knows this well, "because it wasn't an easy choice. Having a child involves a lot of sacrifice."

No babies have been born in the city since January 2011. That was when the only remaining maternity ward, the Ospedaletto on Via Silesu, closed its doors.

Since then, even the children of the Quartesi family, on their identity cards and all other documents, are listed as born in Cagliari. Because in Sardinia's third-largest city, there is no hospital, not even a birthing center where expectant mothers can turn, forced to migrate to the Policlinico or Cagliari's hospitals to give birth. A crucial point of reference is missing, something women have been clamoring for for years, but have received no response. The Ospedaletto, having given birth to over 200 mothers a year, wasn't enough. To stay open, they needed to reach the threshold of 500 births, and so, inevitably, they were forced to close their doors.

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