About Born Together
The time between having the desire to conceive a child through the first three years of the child's life (often termed the 'perinatal period') is an incredibly special moment in the life of a family. At the same time, it can also be very challenging from an emotional, psychological and physical point of view.
'Born Together' is a project aimed to provide support and education to new parents throughout this delicate period of time.
-Francesca Baracchi
About Me
I obtained a master degree in Psychology summa cum laude from the University of Bologna in 2001. During my studies I fell in love with the fascinating world of the neurosciences and decided to pursue a more biological pathway for my career. I therefore enrolled in a PhD program in Neurophysiology during which I worked on the hard quest of finding the answer to the apparently simple question: 'Why do we sleep?'. I successfully obtained my PhD degree in 2005 and then moved to the US for about 4 years, to work at the University of Michigan as a sleep scientist. Here I met my husband and we started to chase each other around the globe until we ended up in Switzerland where, in 2015, we welcomed to the world our first baby.
I have desired to become a mom since I can remember but I have always put my career first. I wanted to become a professor and have my own lab but life does not always go the way we plan and at one point I decided I had waited way too long to have children. I gave birth when I was 38 years-old and nothing has been the same ever since.
Becoming a mother revolutionized my life. A lot of the priorities I had in my 'previous' life shifted to lower positions and I discovered a side of myself who had be silenced for too long. I had a sort of epiphany realizing suddenly that hard core science and scientific data cannot always explain everything, and that there is a quid, which unfortunately in our society is usually overlooked, but that is absolutely fundamental for our well being: being in touch and at peace with our feelings, needs and emotions.
I then decided to embark in a challenging journey and to use this amazing and scary experience of motherhood to start a completely new chapter in my life. I went back to psychology to find some answers and some help and I obtained a qualification as perinatal psychologist after completing a continuing education course in Milan. Today I feel strong of my competences both as a scientist and as a psychologist and I would like to help people who might struggle with the many new challenges and responsibilities associated with parenthood, to make sense of the turmoil and make peace with their own emotions. It is an ambitious but very achievable goal, which for sure is also very rewarding.
Qualifications
2001 - Master of Science in Psychology (University of Bologna)
2005 - PhD in Neurophysiology (University of Bologna)
2005-2015 - Research Scientist (University of Michigan, Università degli Studi di Milano, Inselspital - Bern) and Author of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on the topics of sleep and of the interconnection between central nervous system and immune system.
2016 - Specialization in Perinatal Psychology (ASIPP - Associazione Italiana Psicologia Perinatale and APL - Associazione Psicologi Lombardia )
2016 - Certified Infant Massage Instructor (IAIM - International Association of Infant Massage).
2017 - Research collaboration with the Baby Schlaflabor at Universitätsspital Zürich