Pesaro, September 15, 2026 – On September 12 Ludovica Delbaldo turned 18. A birthday like many others, at least on the surface. A cake blown out with friends and family, the party and plans for the future. But for her mother Manuela Canestrari that number carries a different weight: because when Ludovica was born, reaching the age of majority seemed an impossible milestone to imagine. Today, however, that premature baby thinks about university, wants to study management engineering, and looks ahead.
“The 18th year is just a starting point,” says her mother, whose voice breaks with emotion as she recalls in detail all those terrible moments of a summer night in 2008.
A story of incredible emotions
“Ludo was supposed to be born on December 19, but she arrived much earlier”. Manuela was alone at home, her husband Simone was working away. After feeling strange pains, she rushed to the hospital at five and a half months pregnant. So, at 3:30 in the morning “the doctors realized that the situation was very serious — she recounts — I had a uterine rupture, there was a risk that the baby would come out and that both of us would die”.
“We try to save her, don’t even think about the baby”
The air ambulance could not fly at night to Ancona and the transfer was therefore impossible: “The doctors told me “Say goodbye to your husband, we will try to save her, don’t even think about the baby”. I screamed to save her, for me she was the priority, not me”.
At 5:37 the girl from Pesaro entered the operating room. Before parting from Simone, however, she also thought of him: “My fear was to make him face this wait alone. I made him promise to call his sister and not to be left without someone by his side.” Upon waking, Manuela then received the news that changed everything. “Dr. Cristiano Flumini, who followed me in pediatric resuscitation, gave me wonderful news: “Your baby breathed on her own and is being transferred to Ancona, to Salesi, where she will continue treatment”.
She weighed one kilo and 100 grams
Born weighing one kilo and 100 grams, then dropping to about 700 grams, Ludovica was taken care of by Dr. Francesca Staffolani, a guardian angel “who welcomed me at the hospital, in the ward, when I arrived for the first time,” her mother still recounts. Her daughter “breathed with a Cpap device and had apnea problems”.
She has a scar on her nose, which has become for her mother the sign of that battle: “It is the most beautiful thing she could have, because thanks to that mask, that scar, she began to breathe on her own”.
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The hospital stay lasted two and a half months. Before that, on September 21, Dr. Flumini gave her a concrete reason to hope: “He told me with teary eyes that my daughter had made the improvement he expected. It was as if my Ludo had climbed over a wall”.
The most beautiful Christmas
Then on December 24 came the best news: her daughter was finally brought home.
“Like a Christmas gift she arrived under the tree — she recalls —. And to think she did it wearing the hospital onesie because until that moment, for fear that something would go wrong, I hadn’t dared to buy things for her, like a hat or socks”.
And now she is of age
Eighteen years later her Ludovica is a model student, attending the fifth year at the “Marconi” Scientific High School and ranked in the top 5 at the journalism award in memory of the former editor-in-chief of Carlino, Paolo Nonni, last year. The work, titled “The weight of perfection,” focuses on “The world of gymnasts, who must follow strict nutrition methodologies because they always have to prove to be perfect”.
Last Saturday, at the Garden of Piccolo Mondo in Mombaroccio, she celebrated her graduation with “31 friends and my parents, it was an unforgettable day,” the young woman says, taking the floor. In the future “I will choose management engineering in Bologna or Cesena, I want to study mathematics but combined with other subjects”. She has been practicing rhythmic gymnastics for 12 years, also competitively, at Solaria 90: “But soon I will switch to modern dance — she says — I was inspired to this discipline by my idols, Sofia Raffaeli and Milena Baldassarri, whom I had the pleasure to meet. Now I am putting competition aside to focus more on my studies”.
The story of those days
Mother Manuela often tells her what happened “and I always listen carefully — she says confidently — I feel emotion listening to her even though I have gotten used to it”. From her “I got determination, from my dad lightness and calm, I am a mix of both”. What is certain “is that I will never stop thanking my mother for giving me life, which today I want to enjoy”. The confirmation of a milestone reached that, on that night in September 2008, no one thought possible.
