Plate For Prem 1st - 20th of November
Matteo Zamboni is a culinary consultant based in Sydney and the Executive Chef of Civico47, a neighborhood gem located in Paddington.
Matteo was born and raised in the north of Italy and after completing five years at the hospitality school, he worked in the top Michelin star restaurants in Italy gaining experience in the fine dining sector.
At the beginning of 2022, Matteo and his team opened Civico 47, a casual fine dining restaurant in Paddington, a point of reference for the Italian food scene in Australia.
Following the birth of Matteo’s daughter, Alessia, born premature, Matteo and his family are passionate about supporting other families like their own and joined Miracle Babies Foundation as official Ambassador in 2022.
“We are incredibly happy to have had a baby girl joining our family in June 2022. Our 7 year old boy Dani is so excited to finally being called ‘a big brother’ and cuddle his ‘bubba’. Nevertheless, the journey to get where we are now was somehow bumpy.
My wife Claudia had a pretty smooth pregnancy. We have been cautious and went through all the possible tests and scans, including what they refer to as ‘the harmony test’ and the nuchal translucency scan which consistently came back with low risk. We’ve had a great experience with our first son at the RNSH although this time we also sought some additional opinions from a private obstetrician. The advice was pretty consistent, everything looked good but since Claudia had covid at the beginning of the pregnancy, the doctors requested an additional ultrasound at 30 weeks. And that’s when we found out that our baby girl was affected by a severe growth restriction (the overall weight and abdominal circumference was lower than the 3rd percentile), due to abnormal blood flow in the umbilical cord and a succenturiate placenta.
Given the severity of the circumstances, we started seeing doctors twice a week to monitor the baby’s growth. After a couple of visits, on a Friday morning, we were advised that Alessia needed to be taken out as soon as possible as the blood flow was getting worse. Mum was given steroids immediately to help the baby’s lungs development and two days after, Alessia was born via C-section (she was also breach!) and immediately transferred to NICU. Her weight was only 1.5 kg, sitting below the 3rd centile in the growth chart, exactly what was estimated through the ultrasounds.
Luckily, Alessia did not need any respiratory aid, however she needed to be monitored closely, fed via a gastro tube and she was injected lipids intravenous for the first few weeks of her life.
It took 6 long weeks in NICU at the Royal North Shore Hospital before we could take her home where she finally met her big (and very proud) brother Dani!
All this couldn’t be possible without the incredible team of doctors and nurses of the NICU staff at RNSH! We have felt warmly supported throughout the entire journey and we cannot thank them enough. We’re now looking forward to building many new memories as a family of 4!”
To celebrate joining the Miracle Babies team, we invite you to have a Plate for a Prem at Civico47 to raise awareness for World Prematurity Day on November 17th. By booking a table at Civico47 between 1-20 November and ordering a Crocchetta di Melanzane as part of your meal, you will be helping to provide vital, life-changing support to more of the 48,000 families with a premature or sick newborn each year.
To find out about the Miracle Babies Foundation and Plate to Prem, click here.
